Adventures on the south downs: Rain, riding and rapeseed fields

This weekend I finally got some decent riding in, the rain didn’t exactly stop but we decided to go anyway! The yard looks like a mud pit but because a lot of our hacking is hilly it drains better, this resulted in some of the most beautiful soft green fields underfoot – perfect for a good canter!

Saturday was particularly rainy and windy so I just had a lazy day, fortunately it was a bank holiday so we all get an extra day anyway . Sundays ride was an extended version of the Monument ride we normally do (called so as it passes a war monument up on the hill). This was the day after Desmond moved over to summer grazing so he was a little on the sluggish side with his belly full of grass, still got one or two good canters in.

Bank holiday Monday’s ride was an even better one at 7.2 miles and took just over 2 hours.  Four of us went out for this one so Desmond’s previous day sluggishness disappeared as he got caught up in the competitive spirit of it all . I also started some work on getting him on the bit with a looser rein – with his big heavy cob neck bending doesn’t come naturally, on the upside though he’s not prone to putting his nose up in the air either! Occasionally when he gets really excited his natural impulsion plus me reining him back in creates a beautiful outline but this is on a tight contact, so I’m going to work on teaching him to come down to a softer touch – more on this later no doubt.

One of the highlights from both rides is the gorgeous rapeseed fields now in full bloom. One of the fields on the way out has tractor tracks through it so we rode through them instead of the normal path – on the Monday I cantered back up through one such track and have to say it was one of the most fabulous canters . Some of the pictures can be seen below, enjoy.

Val Thorens snow times

I realised (somewhat belatedly) that I never mentioned anything about my ski trip to Val Thorens at the end of March, to be honest I could ramble on all day about this amazing trip  but instead I should probably let the video and pictures do most of the talking .

Some highlights though were our tiny, tiny apartment where the four of us all slept within about two metres of each other. Using Endomondo I discovered that I covered 144 miles of terrain over the holiday and hit a top speed of 52 mph (although was bested by my friend Matt with his 55 mph). I covered all four Valleys (of, yes the Trois Valleys – Orelle is tecnically a fourth Valley now though) in three hours and seven minutes! And for anyone going to Val Thorens I thoroughly recommend the four mile toboggan run, it was awesome!

Overall it was one of the most fantastic holidays and I can’t wait to go again next year; I went with three beginners, so here’s hoping they’ve fallen in love with it and decide to go again! I have over 400 pictures from this trip, but I tried cut this down to a much more reasonable 39 for the blog – enjoy!

Wet wet weekend = ferret update

I was hoping to one up last wekends 16 miles of riding, but instead it’s wet and miserable and with winds of 20 mph so I decided maybe I should have some lazy indoor time reading and practicing violin . So instead of discussing Dessie and me I though I’d do a little  update on my ferrets Pippin (albino) and Badger (sable) who were introduced back in December.

Since then they’ve settled in nicely, living in their hutch in the garden most of the time and getting free run of the conservatory to play and explore; we’re even been out in the garden and explored the rest of the house with them in harnesses (walking ferrets is a unique experience). I’ve more recently reintroduced them to the idea of a litter box (had to find a way to fix it to the hutch wall, Pip thinks it’s a great toy otherwise) to discover that Badger must have been litter trained in his previous life, before he became a stray, whereas Pip is still a law unto himself!

I’ve been mastering all the tasks that go with ferret ownership: clipping claws is down to a fine art thanks to Beaphar’s ferret paste – I put them on their backs with a blob of paste on their belly and then I’m free to handle clipping while they lick it off! Flee treatment isn’t their favourite thing but I always follow it with a treat so they get some positive association at least… Ear cleaning is still the one I find most awkward and delightful Pip managed to make me cover my leg in ear drop stuff the other day (I definitely smelled interesting). During teeth cleaning was the first time I’d really bothered to inspect their teeth and I discovered that Pip has much better teeth than Badge  - Badger is older though and it’s unknown how long they were stray before the RSPCA rescued them, so who knows what he ate back then.

I’m really tempted to start trying some clicker training with them soon, it worked well with Desmond in the past and is good fun, they’re much more scatter brained than Dessie but are by no means stupid (and like Dessie – love treats)! Below is a collection of my more recent pics of them enjoying the conservatory, some of the pictures include their favourite new feather and string cat toy. I’m particularly fond of the final picture of Pippin eating – he looks very contented .

Adventures on the south downs: Epic riding weekend

I’m sure by the end of summer this weekend will seem just as little and silly as some of my achievements of last year but for now – we clocked an impressive 16 miles of riding over Saturday and Sunday (considering that I only did 21 miles in total for December).

We started with an old favourite, the Vineyard. This was about 7 miles and took just under 2 hours, this ride includes some fairly steep downhill so the pace was a little more careful than  some of our others .

Some of the highlights included meeting a delightful bunch of walkers who had lovely things to say about Desmond,  a VERY big bull in a cow field and racing Sophie’s super fast project pony on the way home. Also all rapeseed fields are starting to bloom and looking beautiful.

The second ride was 9 miles covering some of the areas best features, including the windmill by the seafront and our favourite gallop track that runs next to the racecourse! Our original plan was to do just the racecourse ride but the weather was so nice and the horses were still raring to go, so we detoured home via the mountain. This one also took about 2 hours but the pace was definitely faster!

For once there’s a picture of me and Dessie out and about, I was using his post gallop excitement to try and achieve and collected siting trot (with limited success). We’ve also been working towards a slow canter and had our most successful attempt yet; in the school it’s still pretty much impossible but his natural excitement out on rides really helps with the impulsion.

Then on the way home we found  a nice log to jump and then we accidentally cantered down a steep bank, I still need to get my act together more quickly after a jump and didn’t catch Des in time to stop him – to my great surprise (and relief) he did it perfectly! I guess he’s super balanced now compared to the old days . So all in all, an amazing weekend – looking forward to the next one!

Jumping!

I’ll write about this more extensively at some point, but it’s late and I’m tired, so for now here’s a video of my Dessie being jumped up to 3ft 6 by a friend of mine – I’m so proud of how far he’s come . Enjoy!

Desmond jumping

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Absenteeism

So I’ve been gone for almost 2 months, oops, I was genuinely pleasantly surprised to see that I’m still getting regular visitors and apparently haven’t dropped off the search engines even with my absenteeism .

Since my last post Snow Times it has been a mad time of finishing uni, ski trip and various types of crisis, but in amongst all this I have managed to make some amazing progress with Desmond (long overdue update on its way), in the meantime – thanks to everyone who visited geeksonhorseback in my absence, you are the reason I’m starting writing again.

Snow Times

Finally we had the long awaited southern UK snow! Sadly this was not quite as heavy as a couple of years back when the snow was thick enough for me to ski down my road but it was still enough to have some fun with.

The first of my snowy activities was to drag some of my housemates and friends out for some late night sledging and on the walk back we met a lovely little herd of piebald ponies. I also went to see and even ride Dessie a couple of times and got some lovely pictures (although I do regret not taking my good camera) – some of the highlights are below

Finally I’m actually going to see some proper snow at the end of March, off to Val Thorens! It’s been a couple of years since I last went properly skiing, so expect plenty of excitement leading up to the event and hundreds of photos after!