Our first "rallye"......

Tanya and I took the boys for a lovely day out today, despite the terrible weather forecast we didn't even get wet!


There was a 21km or a 28km ride, we did the 21, but had to cheat (luckily they gave us a map) as having been overtaken by everyone we realised if we didn't cut a few corners we'd never get home !!

Chester was a very good boy, the first couple of times people went past he was keen to follow them, but after that he realised that wasn't allowed and soon settled down.

Some pics:

Loads more pictures here.
 
We did a fair bit of trotting and even had a bit of a canter (but I had to stop and go back as my hip flask fell out of my pocket!), Ches was very good and stopped when I wanted him to and even stood still for me to get back on!




So it was a great outing for our first "rallye", hopefully the first of many.....

Sunny hack...

Went for a nice hack today, with Gandalf's old field mate Gimy, and the mare Gim lives with now, Jinelle. Gandalf had a bit of a spring in his step, was pleased to see Gimy, and Gim showed his usual enthusiasm for seeing Gandalf by pulling his tail........

Beautiful day, we are so lucky to have countryside like this to ride in......

Spring seems to be here.....

Groomed the girls today, it's like a blizzard of hair at the moment, had a dicey moment getting them out of the field, Maverick didn't want them to go without him
Took them into the little paddock to do some "standing still and not stuffing your face" practise, needs a bit more work, I feel!!

Got there in the end.....

Toying with the idea of doing an Interdressage showing class this month, there's one for youngsters, if this weather continues should be able to bath them!
Flies were a nightmare today, have got the spray out, they were both a bit unsure about it at first. And of course last year's masks are too small, need to order some more.......

Thailand

Just got back from ten days in Thailand. Amazing holiday......

We saw some animals that you don't see in Europe much. Like elephants. And tigers.

The elephants were fantastic. We went for a ride first of all, somewhat slower than the horses, with a swinging stride......

......but that wasn't the best bit.
They took off their saddles and we got back on.....to take them for a bath in the river. Brilliant fun!!

Here's a video. The elephant Ali was on was trained to get rid of its riders!

Then the next day we went to see some tigers. They are kept by the monks in a temple and are raised by hand so are very tame, although you still have to be careful around them and follow the rules! We got to take one for a walk

Then the kids went off to play with the baby tigers and feed them.....

There's a lot of controversy about this place, I have read that the tigers are drugged, not fed properly, left out in the hot sun for hours........I have to say that we saw no evidence of this. Apparently it all started because some abandoned tigers ended up at the monks' temple and they took them in. Now they breed them and hand rear them so people can get close to them. We spoke to a couple of volunteers who work there and they had no concerns about the welfare of the animals. Yes, the tourists pay to see them but the money goes on taking care of them......

In fact I was pleasantly surprised how well animals in Thailand in general were cared for, I was expecting far worse. It's a Buddhist country though, so maybe not surprising. There are lots of cats and dogs around, they all follow the food for scraps, even on the beach but they were never agressive and a couple of times I ended up with a cat on my lap!

Went to watch a football match....

....involving ponies, of course! As it's the holidays, Magali had organised a footy match for all the kids on the little ponies, using a big inflatable exercise ball. Great fun was had by all....

Of course, we had to chase some runaway sheep and goats off the pitch before we started....

Then we had to get the SNO to give up the ball.....

Ali's team was called "Bella Sara" and they drew 3 all.

Some more pics:

Éowyn watched for a bit, then got bored and found a nice muddy puddle to play in......

Still, she's nice and knackered now ready for her trip tomorrow......

Chester gets a haircut...

Chester has been scratching his feet a lot recently, there's no evidence of mites or mud fever, I think it's just that when his feathers get wet, they itch. So we decided it was time for a trim.

He was a very good boy, stood still when I tied him up, didn't attempt to go and eat hay (!), let me trim most of it off with scissors. Then we got the clippers out to tidy up, they're actually designed for dogs, they were a bargain in Lidl, I  bought them to do some training with the girls, but they did a good enough job. He was good as gold.....

....fine with me picking his feet up too

Now he looks a bit less hairy!

And his feet are so white! Won't stay like that though.......

Ride and lead gets faster.....

More ride and lead today, took Kinna out with Gandalf. Took them down to the stable, Kinna tried to follow me into the barn to get the tack rather than being left with Gandalf...... Think he has done some disciplining of the girls recently (like the other day when Sky tried to get her head in his bucket, he went for the back of her neck and they both galloped off down the hill and he wouldn't leave her alone til she was on the other side of the field, then he galloped back up to his dinner - obviously recovered from Sunday's ride )

She was very unsure to start with and kept her head pressed against my leg, but after a while she relaxed and seemed to be happy enough. The only thing that spooked her was some cows running up to the fence, she was quite interested in the donkeys of doom, here's a little video:

We did quite a bit of trotting, Gandalf was full of beans today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6VqsmilBBY

And even a little canter going up the hill to the village although she can run faster than Gandalf with his little legs, she got a bit ahead of us, good job I always take them out on a long line!

Must get someone to video us doing that one day.....

Very good little girly