A Fine Horse in New Country

STOP PRESS

The date of our information evening at the Angus RDA, South Bottmyre Farm has been changed: it's now to be on Saturday 6th June.

This is so we can have the hugely knowledgeable and entertaining John Perrin (Master Saddler) who works abroad with World Horse Welfare, and James Balfour, farrier extraordinaire. They will be talking/ showing slides about their work in developing countries.

Please come - sorry about the change of date everyone - but it'll be worth it!

Artist Robert Reid and I share a deep interest in natural history (although we differ in that he is able to identify everything he sees, unlike my more 'holistic' approach.) I love Bob's work (indeed I have several of his pictures), but one of my favourites is this simple watercolour sketch of Glenesk in the snow.

Bob and I also share the traveller's yen. Although not a rider, he has been following the planning and progress of the trip with a keen interest. Hopefully I will be able to meet up with Bob and Anne somewhere along the route.

Drily (as he does), Bob summed up the proposed trip as 'somewhere on a continuum between unbearable and unmissable'.

That will do me nicely.

The Unwanted Pony

Not for the first time (!) we recently found ourselves looking after this little cutie after she was dumped on us - supposedly temporarily, but the erstwhile owner immediately disappeared without trace. With the help of the SSPCA, I have now (after many months) carried out the necessary legal proceedings to gain control over what happens to her. The SSPCA Inspector was extremely helpful and knowledgeable - no wonder, as it turns out Angus and Perthshire are the epicentre of pony-dumping, due in part perhaps to the recent financial shenanigans.

Unlike many abandoned equines though, she is sweet-tempered, willing, sound and easy to handle! She's too small for me to ride, sadly, but is proving to be exemplary under packs. She will not be hard to rehome, and (hopefully) may already have a new home lined up, once the formalities are completed.

I may never know what caused her to be abandoned here, though I will say that this is a pony who has been loved and well-looked after. May that always be the case for her.

By the way, I have been firmly told no more (however cute they may be).

Reading Matters

I think each one of us has random thoughts, motifs and interests which occur repeatedly throughout our lives - for (apparently) no particular reason. I know I have many, which include horse journeys (of course!); Mongolia; horse therapy; indigenous peoples; autism; and top chocolate recipes.

How, then, could I resist The Horse Boy, by Rupert Isaacson (Penguin)? In spite of looming deadlines and a shortage of time generally, I sat up all night reading this. It tells the story of a father who, dissatisfied with orthodox treatments for his five year old autistic son, takes him on a miraculous journey. It begins with Betsy the bay mare and ends in the Taiga (Siberian forests) with the shamen of the reindeer people in a quest for healing.

Isaacson is a well-known excellent travel writer, so the tale is neither mawkish nor sentimental (although I defy you not to at least swallow hard several times.)

My only criticism is that there are no recipes for chocolate goodies (although there is one for ...no, I'm not going to tell you. It would spoil it.)

Please read this book! At the very least, find out more at www.horseboythebook.com

I am very proud (and humble) to have a page featuring the Hoofprints Over Scotland ride in the Planned Expeditions section of The Long Riders Guild. My trip (so huge to me) pales against other planned expeditions this year - through Patagonia, America, Mongolia, Switzerland to Russia (and back!), across North Africa...The founders of the Long Riders' Guild, CuChullaine and Basha O'Reilly FRGS, are in advanced planning to ride around the entire globe.

The Long Riders' Guild is the world's first international association of equestrian explorers, and is an invitation-only organisation. It was formed in 1994 to represent men and women of all nations who have ridden more than 1,000 continuous miles on a single equestrian journey. Members currently reside in 39 countries. These Long Riders have collectively written more than a hundred books on equestrian travel and ridden on every continent except Antarctica.

For Newcomers to Bumdom

When I tell people about my planned long ride, I see two common responses. Half of the people respond with a quiet look of yearning; a longing to be doing something similar, somewhere else. The other half give some variant of 'You're going to do what? Why?'

The other day, pretending to dust, I came across my old copy of Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck, which describes his adventures when he set off with his french poodle to discover America. I have read this book many times (and forced several friends to read it too). No surprise that it fell apart in my hands! Picking it up, it fell open here:


"When I was very young and the urge to be some place else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescibed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job.

Nothing has worked. Four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping. The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement brings on the ancient shudder, the dry mouth and vacant eye, the hot palms and the churn of stomach high up under the rib cage.

In other words, I don't improve; in further words, once a bum always a bum. I fear the disease is incurable. I set this matter down not to instruct others but to inform myself.

When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from Here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find in himself a good and sufficient reason for going.

This to the practical bum is not difficult...This part of the process is invariable and immortal. I set it down only so that newcomers to bumdom, like teenagers in new-hatched sin, will not think they invented it."


Thank you, Mr Steinbeck, for eloquently clearing up the answer to that question 'Why?'

Lejog

No, not a new training technique! I have recently been enjoying a transatlantic correspondence with Greer Chesher from Utah, who is planning to ride end to end of Britain this summer. Apparently that's known as Lejog - or should that be Jogle, if you start in the north?

Always interesting to share ideas with another long rider, especially one who experiences such different conditions. Greer tells me that she has never before had to saddle a wet horse, (she's in for a surprise then) and that the river which runs behind her house is the only water for a hundred miles in any direction! It's impossible to ride long distance unsupported there, since someone has to meet you with water.

I'm looking forward to meeting her in person - sadly our routes don't correspond so we won't be able to ride together at all, but hopefully we will meet up before she begins her ride.

For more details about Greer, visit her website http://www.greerchesher.com/.

Dogs!

These can be a bit of a hazard for the long distance rider. I can never decide which I dislike more - the packs (always seem to be at least five) of little hysterical yapping dogs which zoom about like hairy mobile pot-scourers, or the silent slinking farm collie with one blue eye and a half-torn ear which suddenly materialises behind you in a farmyard and nips your horse's heels.

Don't get me wrong - I'm extremely fond of dogs, and as a veterinary household we generally have our small share of the world's canine cast-offs. ("The nurses wouldn't let me put it down" is a phrase I have come to know.)

Enter Oddjob - a sort-of Jack Russell who has a very perverse view of life. Forever cheerful, virtually untrainable and very noisy, she permanently has the Sword of Damocles (or at least a loaded lethal syringe) dangling over her head - not that she cares a jot. She has been saved from certain death only through her phenomenal mousing/ratting technique - a great and useful skill on a farm with horses.

In spite of daily exposure to our horses for years, she still gets hysterical with excitement when she sees them, and insists on running round in circles, barking furiously. The result of this is that our horses are completely and utterly dog-proof. The older ones ignore her completely: the youngsters will play with her to see (I'm sure) if they can get her to spontaneously combust with excitement. This young gelding (right) particularly enjoys their games - good exercise for both. I can confirm that when other horses are around, though, she is firmly on the lead!

Now I expect the British Horse Society wouldn't fully approve (perhaps you don't either) - but I know for certain that the horses here don't so much as flick an ear when a strange dog approaches, barking, when we are riding. If your horse hasn't had ODD (Oddjob Desensitisation Discipline), the best thing you can do when faced with a loose dog is to turn your horse towards it (don't trot away, as you will encourage it to chase you). In your growliest and most menacing tones (practice on your children/spouse) look it straight in the eye and tell it firmly to go home. If you judge it safe to do so, ask your horse to take a step or two towards the dog - that will usually cause them to turn and run.

More of a nuisance is the loose dog who 'adopts' you on the trail and insists on trotting along behind, tongue lolling and having a great time!

Bitless?
At the moment, much of the work the ponies are doing involves hacking out and raising their general level of fitness. I am totally blessed with the farmer next door, who not only leaves wide tracks round all his fields, but actually mows them in the summer! He also has lovely woods, with some good strong climbs through them - a paradise for fittening work. Each day I see hares, foxes, roe deer, birds and today a hedgehog, confirming spring really is here. I often see this heron too (left ).The farmer - lang may his lum reek - has also put in a ford and a couple of little wooden bridges - ideal for training youngsters for the trail.

I've been experimenting with going bitless on these morning rides. For a long distance horse, bitless has much to recommend it (provided you can stop of course.) It means that a horse doesn't have to have a bit in his mouth for hours every day, reducing the risk of rubs or sores, and easy for horses to graze when you come across a patch of good grazing at the side of the trail.

Naturally you don't want your horse thinking it can snack all the time. There is nothing more irritating than a horse which snatches for grass, or puts his head down unexpectedly! In Colorado, I rode in the mountains with Larry, who was the American NATRAC endurance champion (and certainly worth listening to). He trained all his horses to eat on command - if they heard that verbal signal, they were allowed to graze. Otherwise, no way! On my return I trained my horses the same way, which is remarkably easy providing you're consistent - even with Highland ponies, who have to be the greediest beings on the planet.

The bitless bridle I am using is a Dr Cook's which I selected specially for the job (well, actually, it was hanging in the harness room.) I like it (so do the boys). I have had no trouble stopping! I also find that I steer much more with my weight, focus and legs than with the reins: better riding and nicely responsive ponies.

Young, Gifted and Black

I have just been reading the amazing tale of Tom Bass. Who? Tom Bass was a gifted black horse trainer born into slavery in the late nineteenth century, who rose to fame through his humane and skilled training of horses.

In the words of CuChullaine O Reilly FRGS, one of the founders of the Long Riders Guild:

"Before Jackie Robinson ever donned a Dodger uniform - there was Tom Bass. Before Rosa Parks ever demanded a seat in the front of the bus - there was Tom Bass. Before Martin Luther King ever had a dream - there was Tom Bass. Before Barack Obama ever ran for President - there was the legend of Tom Bass – the black horse whisperer. Born a slave, the friend of Presidents, the most famous Black American horseman this country has ever known, today his story is consigned to oblivion. Yet, once his name was a household word synonymous with equestrian feats of unparalleled beauty and achievement. But he didn’t start out famous. He started out in chains."

It's a fascinating story, and one which I hadn't come across before. To read about it, click the link below.


Long Riders Guild Academic Foundation

"Never eat more that you can lift." Miss Piggy

The conditioning regime for the trip continues: we're all feeling much fitter, with rather more discernible waistlines. A friend of mine (a heart specialist) gave me some good diet advice: "If it tastes yummy, spit it out at once!" A couple of people have recently said "You're looking fit - how much weight have you lost?" I'm afraid I don't know...

Having wasted so much of my youth obsessing about the numbers on the scales (don't ask me what I was doing when John Lennon was shot, but I can tell you what I weighed), for the last few years I've worked on how fit I feel (and how my clothes fit).

Horrors - that blissful ignorance is coming to an end! To help raise some more funds for World Horse Welfare, we are having a little sweepstake. To enter, you only have to answer a simple question - how much total weight will Kate, Doogs and Yeoman lose (or gain!) on their thousand mile trip?

Whilst I would like to think that we will all have achieved supermodel status by the end, you will need to factor in all the wonderful hospitality we have been offered, plus a long weekend in a hotel in Morayshire with 16 bacchanalian friends towards the end of the trip.

The total starting weight (not individual, Doogs would be so embarrassed) will be announced at our information evening on Saturday 6 June (note change of date).

There is a fabulous prize of, naturally enough, dinner, for the person who is closest - courtesy of the beautiful and luxurious Kinloch House Hotel near Blairgowrie (right) - well known for its stunning cuisine. Many thanks to Graeme Allen and family for this most desirable prize!

For earlier News, click here.