Please, no more snow
So although this is what it looked like last week from tuesday til friday we did finally get a snow plough round which coupled with a day of rain allowed us to get out. Everywhere was back to a delightful wet bog by then and the spring looked ever so far away.
Thankfully that meant an end to lugging round hay on foot and amusing ourselves watching the little birds feeding

which has been quite amusing since the big fat finches have learnt to ride the carousel,

giving the little tits the hump, since they reckon all the sunflower seeds belong to them.the bird feeder also provided me with perhaps one of my best wildlife sightings to date, I was sitting at the pc in the evening probably guiltily perusing some Daily Mail  celeb story when I should have been writing a blog when I saw a big blonde shape swoop past the window. The next minute it was on the windowsill, who should be swivelling his head and staring in at me but Mr. Barn owl him very self. While he wasn't generous enough to stay there for me to grab the camera he was blinded for long enough to look in and make eye contact with me, which seemed to freak him out so he took off. I can only imagine he'd come in for a mouse busy munching on the seed, but I very much doubt I will ever be privy to such proximity again, he was less than a metre from me.

Anyhow I digress, this last two months hasn't just been about bad weather and getting Turnip out, it's also been about getting the other guys back on the road too, Charlie, Red and Cloud have been in my next tier of priority, mostly because I really wanted to get them out to the young horse training shows as they only really run to the end of March, mid April and not only do they offer a really great atmosphere to get them going in without having to bother with too much glamming up they also more importantly provide the environment for rectifying problems as they may, or hopefully may not, come along. The best part of them is that not only will the collecting ring be full of ponies but the main ring too and if you're going to jump in France you have to expect to be sharing the arena with at least one other horse during your round, so you'd better get used to it.

First call Red,

Charlie

and Cloud

all visited Auvers for their first 'concours d'entrainement'. They all went very well and were very sensible, well Red was a wally while Turnip jumped, he had to visit their competition stables, but two gingers together, what can you expect? They feed off each other!
I have to say the highlight for me of our trips to Auvers was seeing the romanies

We got lost on or way the firsty trip but it was well worth it as at the first roundabout we espied this apparition coming towards us. A family of gypsies in a converted caraven, the sort that should be pulled by a car being pulled by a pair of native cobs.
They passed us when we pulled in to consult the map so you can see what I mean

sawn off caravan with sat dish!
I always fancied taking a year out to try the life of a traditional romany, but I'm not sure this kind of caraven appeals. I fancy the quaint painted sort. I take my hats off to these guys though, it might be a romantic life through the summer but in February? You must be one tough cookie

when this is your camp for the night by the motorway,( we passed them on our route home).
They all seemed jolly happy when they trotted past us for our video though,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blnJn02rrh4&list=UUGIIOedOX-L_TKVr9iw693w&index=7


 I'm sure a travelling life is much more fulfilling is you have horses to tend every night, well if you like horses that is! Charlie and Cloud they must be bonkers, " You mean the cob pulls the van? Oh boy, you get the van to give the cob a lift, like us guys!"
Charlie and Cloud visited le Haras du Pins;

Cloud by now felt she was an old hand at this sort of jazz, so not only did she jump sensibly, without any spooking at anything, she also tied up like the sweet girl she is at the trailer by herself while Charlie took his turn.

Charlie jumped incredibly well, he was a little more animated than Cloud and had I admit had his moments outside, but what's in the ring is what counts, right?

He then also proceeded to convince me of my convictions that his stallion days are over by tying up outside the trailer with Cloud and hogging the haynet, pigwig.



I can't tell you how delighted I am about this, he was never one to show off his stallion self and would quite happily travel alongside mare or gelding before but I really think I would never know he'd been entire now despite the fact he's only been gelded six months. The proof is waddling round the field though as Pearl labours through her final days of pregnancy carrying Charlie's one and only sprog.

Red and Charlie have also been to some shows, they both on different occasions accompanied Turnip down to Rennes

to this amazing facility that shelters under an absolutely huge single pitch roof big enough to cover a 60x 40 arena with adjacent warm up arena and run of stables along the lowest end. It's a fabulous idea, allowing masses of natural light in from the high end and also presumably generating huge amounts of electricity from it's solar panelled roof.
It was Charlie's first show and he was a little overawed by the envitable (in France) pop music,proliferation of horses and spooky great shed. Ooooh and did I mention it was arena eventing aswell! Poor Chubby he hasn't seen a xc fence in two years! But he did alright;

Red didn't get to go inside on his trip down he had to use the outdoor arena, luckily it was a better day but the dogsbody couldn't get any pictures as he was hanging on, with grim determination, to his best friend Turnip, who still to this day refuses to stand in the trailer alone, bless him. Anyhow Red did well it was a bit of a jump start for him with 1m05 prep class and he had one pole down, but he tried his hardest and I was pleased with him.

They also both went up the road to Beny Bocage for the 95cm prep.This was where Red should have started, it was a nice little confidence boost for him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gXEFRDrJNU&list=UUGIIOedOX-L_TKVr9iw693w&index=1

Charlie looks pretty flash in his video,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBE52yUH4k8&list=UUGIIOedOX-L_TKVr9iw693w&index=2

but unfortunately it only lasted three jumps as our man on the ground had to go off to rescue Red, he'd decided he wouldn't stand alone at the trailer and set off to find his mate Charlie.
The announcement distracted me too and have to admit his round didn't continue in quite such a delightful vein, but we got there in the end. AND, he was a good boy in the collecting ring mostly and he doesn;t seem to think he's a stallion any more at all.My main aim of this spring was to test the water with him and see how the hormones were flowing, but as ever Chubby likes food not women.

So that's where we're all at for the moment, Visa, Monty and popeye have all been restricted to jumping in the field at home, weather permitting because for the moment all these competition venues are far away and when you only have a trailer the fuel costs soon tot up.

And of course my biggest news is that despite the weather doing it's damndest to make my life a living hell, it looks like Turnip will be setting off to Fonatainebleau in the morning. We gave him a practice trot up yesterday, it went really well. The dogsbody walked him up, turned him back, they did three strides of fancy trot steps with bum slung sideways before Turnip got away and went galloping up the chemin. It doesn't bode well, but I wouldn't expect less.

I have learned a lesson before we've even left home. NEVER try and have eleven horses alone over the winter and NEVER NEVER try and go away and leave them for a week when the weather's foul, the grass still isn't growing , you're expecting a foal and you have seven pups. It has taken me three solid days to set everyone up, I cross my fingers it will work out, though I expect another three days of rectifying probelms on my return AND we get to share the truck at night with the three pups and three dogs that are coming. Gosh, I can't wait!!