A proper good Sunday ride

Yesterday Juniblest and I went for a 17k hack to explore some new parts of the Forest and to get a good day out. The weather wasn't really on our side, but there's no such thing as poor weather - only bad clothing! So we went out for about 3hrs and had a great time.

Not a good day for a long hack...

As it was a heavy horizontal drizzle you would expect Juniblest to be happy about me taking him into a warm and dry stable, but this boy is too much of an outdoor type for that. Normally he's very relaxed when I groom him and faff around, but yesterday all he wanted was to get out in the rain again. He kept looking out over the wall with longing in his eyes...

I think he got what he wanted!

Some beautiful autumn colours out there at the moment

Finally we found a place where I hadn't got a clue about where we were! My problem is that my sense of direction is quite good and on Juniblest who always seems to know exactly where home is I can't get lost no matter how long I ride for.. It's a blessing in one way as I think I'd lose confidence in exploring very fast if I had to keep calling for help everytime I went out for a longer ride, but on the other hand I never get that proper feeling of being out in the wild on my own when I'm able to point out where we started at any time.

I decided to enjoy the rare moment of lostness and have lunch!

Om nom nom nom - nom munch munch munch

We have an expression in Norway that I have translated (poorly) for you: without drink and food, the hero is no good! So I had this rather funny rubber cake thing while Juniblest munched away on his grass.

Oh! And at one point we encountered what I named 'devil clay'. It sucked three of Juniblest's hoof boots right off! I couldn't believe my eyes as those boots never ever fall off - I've been cantering through a lot of mud and water with them and they've never let me down, not once. When I tried to rescue them I realised this mud was extraordinarily tough and the vacuum was so strong I had to pull the boots up with both hands, standing in the same position I do when I'm lifting something very heavy.

Long story short, Juniblest became a nice colour of grey-brown and I looked like I'd fallen off or been to the spa with my clothes on..

Here, you can actually see the colour of the boots. That was not the case when we more or less swam to the safety of a gravel track..

Synthetic saddle = no worries! =D

And if that wasn't adventure enough, we managed to sneak up on some deer and snap a few shots! From horseback I see them so often I hardly notice them anymore, but the moment you take a camera with you they seem to have a deer councel or something at the other end of the Forest..

Oh, deer! A bum..

How many are deer?

He's deering (read: glaring) at me..

Sorry about the poor puns... =)

Write to you later!

Action pictures from Breamore

As promised, here they are:

Cheers!

Endurance ride at Breamore

Last Sunday was this season's final ride arranged by the Mid South group and as always we had a great time! We did 23k, the weather wasn't as warm this time and Juniblest had lots and lots of energy - I actually had problems holding him back at the beginning and had some fun whispering 'you'll never beat them in the quarter-mile' in his ear. This is a quote from the movie Hidalgo =)

We made sure to do a little warm up before the ride this time, but as we walked towards the starting line we were told to wait as there had been an incident on the track. It turned out to be a rider who had taken a fall and the road was blocked by an ambulance. I still don't know the outcome but we were told that an ambulance helicopter left without him or her so we concluded that it couldn't be too serious. I'm hoping they were just being very precocious and that the rider was alright.

The wait gave us a chance to warm up some more and even pop to the loo one last time. When we eventually set off Juniblest seemed very inspired by the arabians in front of him considering his rather airy trot and despite all my attempts to calm him down slightly (a very unusual situation for both of as lazy as he can be sometimes!) he just wanted to take off like a space ship!

He just kept going and going, and clearly leap frogging other riders and even large groups helped maintain this feistiness. I'll remember that for future rides ;)

We even had a little race against two other riders (+ Anna and Rosie of course) just as we came towards the finishing line laughing. Juniblest was about to win when he decided the line itself was scary enough to shy away from or that he should wait for Rosie or something like that, and we were beaten by a huge black horse. Typical! ... =)

Anna and I knew we did a great ride but as none of us are brilliant mathematicians we couldn't really figure out what speed we had done - and the surprise was huge when we got the Rufus score sheets back showing 11.6 km/h! Yippeeee =D Probably not a good speed for a pro, but a LOT faster than last month's ride and definitely the fastest ride we've done so far. With a heart rate of 48 bpm I'd say this was a brilliant end of a fantastic season where I've learned a lot. Next time I'll try not to race someone towards the end in order to get a lower heart rate ;)

Anyway - picture time!

Getting ready:

The venue:

Even my saddle had sweaty patches:

A well deserved roll and a hippy shake:

Shake it to the left...

...Shake it to the right...

...Do the hippy shake shake with all of your might...

...Oh baby!

11.6!

Rosette!

Anna letting Juniblest out of the van

'Yes, you're allowed to get out now'

Pictures of us somewhere along the track are on their way - I just have to buy them off the photographer first.

Hope you enjoyed reading, I'll write more soon (ish)!

The Northland Pony is endangered

This has nothing to do with the 'New Forcast ride' or Juniblest's health, but I read in the news today that the Norwegian Northland Pony (wikipedia article) is endangered. Less than 200 foals were born this summer, which is considered critical. The whole breed can be lost forever in a matter of a few generations (I hope they're talking human generations!) and unless something drastic happens Juniblest will be the only NNP to set hoof in England ever, not just the first..

I know England has New Forest ponies, Welsh ponies, Exmoor and Dartmoor ponies, but I'd like to tell you what I like about the NNP anyway in case someone realises this is the breed for them =)

First of all - the Northland Pony is a fantastic allrounder! If you want to specialise in something it may not be the breed for you, but if you want to do a bit of everything or if you want a family pony the Northland Pony is absolutely perfect. Juniblest does dressage to a certain level, he jumps 3 feet, he's a very good driving pony, a fantastic hacker and endurance pony, is perfect for Riding for the Disabled, can do cross country on a low level, loves medieval re-enactment (including jousting) and gymkhana/mounted games, and takes all challenges in his stride. New things or situations are never a problem with him.

And all the Northland Ponies I've heard about (the ones that are not left in a field to get fat and lazy, that is..) are as 'multi skilled' ;) Just check out Ruskens Solve (all text is in Norwegian, but the pictures will tell you what you need to know)!

Second of all - Juniblest can go from gallopping flat out to walk calmly on a long rein. I'm not a 100% sure if this applies for all Northland Ponies but from the ones I've seen I think it does. This is a huge advantage when doing endurance, for instanse, because the pony does not wind itself up from running and is mentally very calm - something that brings the heartrate down. Also, it makes life easier for us humans. I can have a canter or a gallopp whenever I like without being scared of my horse becoming nappy afterwards. There is an element of training here, but as the Northland Pony comes from hard conditions with hardly any predators (if any at all) it is more important for them to save energy than to be on guard constantly.

Third - I've had a few incidents where Juniblest has got himself stuck and where him panicking could end very, very badly. That time when someone had left a rusty and invisible steel wire fence in the forest and he got both his front legs completely tangled in them, for example. I told him to stay and he did until I had freed both his legs and we could go home. Or all those times where he's had a roll in a stable just to get himself caught on his back with his legs up against the wall.. He never struggles, he just waits calmly for me to get a lead rope around his leg and pull him free. Again, there's an element of training here, but freaking out is not a typical Northland Pony thing and it makes them pleasant to handle and ride.

Fourth - although they can be very calm and almost dopey, they love playing and when they're having fun you can get lots of energy from them! Just look at the pictures of Ruskens Solve jumping!

Oh, and they are very economical as they are extremely hardy and can (almost) literally thrive on love and thin air. The plus side of this is that you will not need a stable, you will not have to buy expensive pony nuts (supplements are always good, though), you'll hardly need any hay during the winter and you won't have to buy many expensive rugs. The down side is that you have to be very careful with grass, but basically this means that you have to use a grazing muzzle and ride a lot in the summer - which is fun!

I'm hoping that the New Forcast Ride will help promote this lovable and diverse breed outside of Norway and that it will become as popular as the Norwegian Fjord Horse =)

Here are some pictures to illustrate Juniblest's diversities and skills:

First time he was clipped ever - no drugs, no twitch, nothing

Dressage

Very good with children (Photo: Stian Green)

Doing medieval re-enactment

Jumping

Thank you for reading - hope you enjoyed it!