A Fine Horse in New Country

Trust in Allah...but always tie up your camel!

What to do with Bomber overnight is one of the puzzles the horse traveller has to solve. There's a new page here in the Training Section which looks at some of the different options.


Thought for Today

"When you're young and you fall off a horse, you may break something. When you're fifty, you splatter." Roy Rogers

Feb 2 2009
Keeping it Dry

This is the ultimate horse-camping challenge. Bad enough to have to ride endlessly in the rain (we did a lot of that last summer), but dealing with damp clothes, damp sleeping bag (the worst!) or wet socks can quickly sap the morale of the hardiest hippo-camper.

In addition, carrying anything liquid, like meths which I use for my stove, shampoo etc can all too easily lead to dampness from the inside out too. Yeccch, especially when it leaks into the porridge oats.Problem solved! Last year I discovered Exped bags. I think they were originally designed for canoeists (who know quite a lot about water) - they are lightweight and waterproof storage bags with a fold top closure, which buckles shut.

Not too expensive either - I got a whole family of colour-coded sizes from teensy to huge for about thirty quid. Lots of outdoor shops stock them.As well as keeping my gear dry, they proved to have a bunch of uses: water carrier (when that handy trough is on the other side of a fence), for soaking sugar beet in, and carrying out leaky rubbish. The colour coding is very handy for finding things quickly in your packs too. They wash and dry well after the trip too.All in all, much better than the bin-liner solution, where everything a) looks the same and b) gets ripped with some not-very-rough handling.

Back to Basics

"<Horses> have always understood a great deal more than they let on. It is difficult to be sat on all day, every day, by some other creature, without forming an opinion on them.On the other hand, it is perfectly possible to sit all day, every day, on top of another creature and not have the slightest thought about them whatsoever."

Douglas Adams Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

I hope I pay a little more attention to my ponies than this! Well, I know I do - spending long hours sitting on them makes me very interested in the state of their backs.As well as being very particular about saddle fit, (never wholly straightforward, especially on Doogs as he has such muscular manly shoulders) it's also good to have them professionally checked out once in a while.

I am very pleased to have Catriona Goulding looking after the ponies in the run up to, and during, the long ride. Catriona is currently the equine physiotherapist for the Scottish Endurance Team. She trained with the internationally renowned Mary Bromiley and also has a Postgraduate Diploma in Animal Physiotherapy, as well as being a BHS registered instructor.The ponies couldn't be in better hands. Watching Catriona work is fascinating, and the boys clearly love it and gain immense benefit from it. (I just wish they wouldn't always get their willies out...it's soooo embarrassing...)

To learn more about Catriona and her work, click here.

Horse and Harmony

A thousand miles in everything a Scottish summer and autumn can throw at you is a pretty robust test for any gear, don't you think? So I'm delighted to have the opportunity to be testing out some equipment for Horse and Harmony. Based in Aberdeenshire, they have a very good understanding of what's needed (and what the Scottish weather can do.)

They have very generously offered to be the main sponsor for our ride and are delighted to be supporting World Horse Welfare - a great cause. I'm particularly pleased to be associated with them - not only have I bought some excellent gear from them over the years, but they're almost family! Well, not quite - they own a Highland gelding whom we bred who is a full cousin to Doogs and Yeoman, the mainstays of the forthcoming ride.

I won't ever forget the morning that pony was foaled - somehow he'd managed to roll under a fence and we found him lying in the River Isla at 4 am - with a rather hysterical mare on the other side. Still, no harm done (except to us - have you ever tried lifting a very wet new-born foal over a high fence?) He always was a total character, and I gather nothing much has changed! Although he's gone grey now, he was also memorable when he was born for being - I can only describe it as - tangerine! (Not a colour recognised by the Highland Pony Society, as it turned out, but very striking.)

For January news, click here.

Don't tell me it's going to stop raining?