Horse Riding in all Seasons in Scotland

It has been a bit of a month for me behind the scenes here, and life has thrown me an interesting 'opportunity' and with it everything that seemed part of my normal life has been temporarily sucked up into a vortex of application forms, legals and business admin. None of this has anything to do with horses of course, or art, which is quite my point. It's just not the sort of stuff that I think any of you tune in for, so I went uncharacteristically 'quiet'. Me, the out and out blether I am........not a peep. SShhhhh!So, this is my backfill with photos post....

.....hello Merlyn! My last ride on Merlyn was weeks ago, he has had a cut leg ever since, but we will see each other again tomorrow. Such a sweet face when he is in a nice mood. I only ever take a photo after we ride, he is much less grumpy then....

....and it was, your absolutely typical Scottish miserable driech day.....tell me how are you supposed to find a horse in a field that you can't even see to the other side of?

......we could hardly see 20 feet infront of ourselves, frankly a little bit daft as we had no high vis gear on at all. I have mentioned before he is so black it is like a cloak of invisibilty.....big wet black ears and a mane blowing in the wild wind. And to think Ali called me a fair weather rider....

.....here is the view from Merlyn's stable. Yes, I know, he is a lucky horse to live in bonny Scotland with a view like that. You are thinking "It even looks beautiful in the rain"....look out at it every day and your perception will start to change....

...aaah, now this is more like it, may you all have weather like this when you visit Scotland. Fantastic day.....a three hour hack at Craigengellan in glorious September sunshine the whole way....

 

....three hours is a long time....we go over the hills and far away

 

....gate locked......ah, which way now?

  



....if we could just bottle up the sunshine....is this even on the same planet as my earlier photo?

.....idyllic..... looking out over the water....

....on the road back home, all happy and tired....

 

.....last photo opportunities ...



......and home, big stretch Trio!

What a hack, but guess what, you guys are going to freak.......I never took a photo of the Minature Shetland mare and foal! Ooops. 



Wipe that stupid grin off your face...

I can't.

You see, we went out on a two hour hack at Craigengellan Estate yesterday.

I think the wind must have changed in the middle of one of the dozen or so canters that we had across fields and through woodland tracks, and that excitement and exhilaration got smacked onto my face so firmly that it it's here for at least the whole week.

The smile will not budge. My friends and I had such stupid grins on our faces on the drive back home, we probably looked like we were a more than a little drunk.

Tearing across fields on the back of a horse is surely up there as one of the most incredible things that you can experience in a lifetime. The fact that you can book in to do it all again whenever you like - or can afford to - is just odd, kind of like buying happiness of sorts. They say money can't do that, but I suspect any horse owner knows that this is not an entirely truthful fact.

I feel incredibly lucky to be comfortably off enough to afford this pleasure, if not a horse....although I will keep on buying the lottery tickets in hope.

Happy hacking

Travelled down Ayrshire way again last weekend for some hacking fun with my friend Jane. Two hours in the Craigengellan Estate, me on Freddy Jane on Norman.....Norman, what were they thinking when they named a horse Norman?

the handsome old boy Freddy

Our lead horse was a mare Lucy, who had been out of work for about six years foaling, and since her return is a little bit wired. She has quite a pace on her and Ros's Mum said she would only take her out with more experienced riders (!?!) as she can be a little unpredictable.

'Wow, us experienced' I thought....it was nice not to be referred to as a novice rider for a change, gave us both a much needed confidence boost. It is all in the mind this horse riding mullarkey, I am more and more convinced of that all the time.

Lucy set a crazy pace even at a walk, and Norman was hot on her heels and Freddy shaking off his twenty two years and keeping up with the speedy duo on all but the most stretched out canter. Actually I am pretty sure Norman was galloping briefly and so would Freddy had I let him. You are only as young as you feel, you know, once an eventer, always an eventer!

We came back exhausted and on a massive high....this, my friends, is what it is all about.

Hacking oot this month...

Thats a Scottish-ism, not a typo.

This beautiful horse is Trio, he is a Craigengellen Horse who I took out on a hack at the weekend.  He is absolutely stunning. I love the fact that they let his mane grow out, I think ke is destined for an drawing or illustration project, he has mystical pony / horse written all over that face, he just needs a story to suit!

Trio, a lovely Craigengellan Horse

As you may know if you have been following a while I have a few issues with hacking out horses - there is a history there, like I have said everyone has a story, and you find mine here. Anyhow, I have been working on erase this long past event and replace it with the more positive riding experiences of the present,  and I have a two pronged attack. The first is visiting Craigengellan, where the hacking is terrific. The horses are ridden out regularly, know the land and seem a lovely relaxed lot. I think this has the potential to work wonders for the confidence and restoring a lot of positive riding experiences from my childhood and we can have some fun cantering over fields in a very safe setting, with sound horses.

My friend Jane in front, over the fells we go.

Trio was selected for his extra laid back demeanour. He was good as gold and we cantered up over the fells without minimal hint of my 'open green space' angst. I had a 'whoa' moment as he stretched out a little closer to a gallop, but he eased back, and realised it was all in the head. 'Smile' shouted the lead rider over her shoulder at me, and I did, I beamed with the excitement of it. We even managed not to trample on a young lamb who darted out in our path, as even with grass under his toes he slowed when asked, allowing the little lamb to scamper with a 'maaa' to his 'maaam'

The other prong is Merlin, been the lovely big horse who a very kind colleague at work is letting me ride. On Mondays I have the luxury of just a little bit of stolen time which neither belongs to my work nor my children amd some of this time now belongs to Merlin.

This is a entirely a different type of riding, the catching, grooming, tacking going out on your own kind that is a much truer representation of having your own horse. And it requires extra boots full of confidence.



Merlin, just as well I am not a photographer!

Riding alone is a strange one. I did it younger on Sam and others without a thought, but then I came a cropper. Having stood in alone a field once hollering for help, I have no particular intention of repeating this, but the risk is always there.

So far I have only made it out in company, although we ride along the road to the school and back alone, but the plan is to get right over this. My confidence is growing as I get to know him and I think I have reached the stage that  this week I think we will go for a little post lesson hack on our own. Our ride will be walking and trotting, as although there are a few opportunities for a canter, that will only be if and when I find the nerve to silence too rational mind enough to do so.  

Anyhow, a landmark moment ..... baby steps are the way to go.

Return of the Happy Hacker

Finally today, after many months of 'thinking about it' I made it out today on a hack. This is a big moment and marks the return of the happy hacker.

You see for many years hacking was horse riding to me...the schooling stuff was a means to an end, thing that just happened the weeks in between ..... I swear I learned to canter while out pony trekking, with a yell over a shoulder of 'just hang on to the front of the saddle and you'll be fine'. It was not a collected composed experience, and I am sure I am still trying to right bad habits in the school learned through just getting on with it in big open spaces.


photo by Graham Lewis on Flickr
Creative Commons 2.0

 As a child I lived for a few years in Oban in Argyll. We spent a lot of time driving the hundred miles back and forth to Glasgow so that less adapted family could get a fix of city life.

Not for me the city (in those days)  I spent the long drive back to Oban gazing out the window fixated with the countryside.

The drive up to Argyll is dramatic and beautiful, changing through hills and forests to bare hillsides of falling shale where trees had been felled. The whole drive the eight year old me imagined myself riding, as we whizzed past the fields and the fences, I saw every inch of the landscape was there to be ridden in my imagination - cantering across, ditches, fences, my mind raced on horseback the whole journey back home. Hacking held no fear in those days.

Then things changed. I had my incident on the flighty racehorse many years back, and stayed away from horses a long while after. When I came back to riding a couple of years ago, all I wanted to do was go on a hack, still no real sense of fear. But when I finally did all changed.

The minute we got into an open field and somewhere in my subconscious, everything to do with Sam, that feeling of no control came back to me. A switch flicked, the colour drained from my face and my seat became electric. Needless to the sense of alarm in my whole body quickly got through to the horse, and I had a hack fraught with bucking, bolting and unplanned gallops. That was a year ago and I rode the painful journey back to the stables, my hands blistered with the battle of wills that had ensued, dismounted with relief to have my life in my hands. I swore as I sat quaking for 2 hours afterwards I would be happy never to go out on a hack again in my life.


Craigengillan Horses

Well the eight year old girl inside me just wouldn't let it lie, not at all happy with the notion that you could close that happy chapter.

Today marks the moment when the return of the childhood exhilaration of horse riding in through the open country, either in reality of just imagined, was once again tangible.

The scenery was wonderful through my beautiful Craigengillan Estate. My trusty stead, Trio, a beautiful grey, in need of just the right amount of encouragement to keep up as we cantered through the woodland path and only got slightly twitchy at a creaking tree - isn't it peculiar the things that set them off ? And so with delight my riding friend Jane and I will make the short jaunt to Craigengellan again for great riding, lovely scenery and good natured horses again, very, very soon!