Ride n drive

Have had a great horsey day today. Originally we were due to go on a day ride with the people from a local riding school Got all set, Éowyn booked in to the holiday club for the day, trailer ready to take Gandalf and Ches up there the night before, took Seraphina to stay with Maverick.........all sorted until we discover the woman that runs the place wants €50 for me to go along on my OWN horse and bring my OWN lunch

Soddez cela pour un jeu de soldats, as they say.......

So, having gone to all this trouble to get a day off, we go to plan B. Took the horses to Tess's, went out from there this morning, Tess on Organza, me & G and Tanya on Ches with Ali and Caitlin in the buggy with Coquinette and assorted dogs......

And we had a great time! For some reason, Gandalf was really on his toes, he wanted to canter all the time, we did a lot of piaffe and at one point trotted up a hill mostly sideways not like the boy at all! We did manage a few canters, he's great at going from a standstill like the western horses, not so good at the stops yet.......Coquinette was on form too, she can go really fast when she wants to. Only slight problem was Choccy had to be on the lead because Organza doesn't like her and at one point Gandalf stepped on her. From the noise she made, you would have thought she was being murdered!!! Luckily we were in a muddy field at the time so there was no serious damage, I dread to think of the vet bills if it'd been on the road.......After that, she hitched a lift....

We got to Tanya's, put the horses in the paddock, had a spot of lunch. Then we decided to go down to the river......uncharacteristically Gandalf went in the water!!!

So did Tanya, when Ches thought a roll might be a good idea.....

Caitlin went swimming....at one point Coquinette disappeared completely under the water and resurfaced festooned in weed, like something from Pirates of the Caribbean......
Excellent fun, we left the horses to dry out a bit whilst we had tea and cake, then saddled up and went back up to Tess's.

Loads more pics here, and a map of the route here.