Summer Sunshine

Summer has arrived in Europe - we are having gorgeous weather all across the board. It has been so nice that I have been a bad blogger and not keeping you guys up to date - although to be honest nothing much is happening...

Kika conveniently pulled a shoe last Monday and had the week of work for herself...the jammy so-and-so

The sad face on her with her en-forced
holiday from hacking

Really she was transfixed by some new cows
a few fields down

Poor Nancy has had to "pick-up" the slack and was called upon to do more hacking then she might otherwise have had to - I usually try to alternate and take one each day.
It still it hasn't exactly been taxing work-wise on either of them as we meander through the trails with an odd spot of trotting or cantering when we feel like it and it isn't too hot!

I love eye shots
& the way the light affects the colour!

Ready for road in new fly rug

I recently ordered two fly rugs from German Equistore, Krämer - LINK, on in 145cms for Kika (Brown) and one in 155cms for Nancy. As you can see from above photo teh brown also fits Nancy and I am now thinking i should probably have just ordered a normal fly sheet in a similar size as I can only ever ride one at a time and if both come out with me - K is usually on a lead and the rugs Ihave bought would slip without a saddle - woopsy!
Lesson learned and I shall have to order a separate fly rug for when we take Kika on a walk - still if things pan out like a hope they will and either my mother or friends decide to join me for a hack sometime and I take my two girls - they will each have a fly rug that can be used with tack - so all is well that ends well!

O & N
on our first fly rug adventure

Last week didn't quite pan out as I'd hoped as I made a silly mistake getting onto a round about in my driving test and as such didn't pass - so I have to do 8 more lessons before sitting the test again in about a fortnights time - fingers crossed I keep my wits about me next time & don't make silly mistakes that I wouldn't normally make!

Nancy brought some berries home with her from our hack!

But all's well that ends well - the girls are good, looking & feeling well in themselves. They should be getting new shoes as I type - so fingers crossed all goes well with the new blacksmith even though I couldn't be there and he doesn't speak English or French - should make for interesting future conversations with my stilted German. Good news is two friends also use him and as we are on the same shoeing cycle one or both should always be nearby if I ever have communication difficulties!

Sleepy N - she had a 'tough' working week

The Guru and I rode Nancy & O, leading Kika back to the yard last night for an overnight stay ahead of farrier visit today. I was naughty and had a sneaky spin on Kika in the main arena last night for a 20minute flatwork session to see what she'd be like 1 week out of the saddle and three weeks out of the arena - I am delightedly proud to say that she didn't put a foot wrong and I smiled like a goon the whole time!
Our little snippets of work while hacking are paying off and I actually feel a benefit to my own position & riding ability through the positive effects of the bits of work we do while hacking. Fingers crossed - long may it last!

Promised Polo Photos

Gosh I am really late with these - sorry guys!
Last week got away from me as work is in high-drive before the Judges head off on their holidays at the end of this week...
This post will be photos taken the Sunday before last (7.7.2013) at the Polo tournament my mother & I went to check out - there was a cool parade of "Old Timer" cars, although before realising it cars cars I joke with my mother that we'd enter her in it! ROFL!
I snapped a few pics of the cars as well as the impressive polo ponies in action!

All photos taken on phone (so not great quality - sorry!) as we sat in the grass sipping on a lovely strawberry sirop & water mixture - it was deliciously refreshing!

Match 1 - Luxembourg team in Brown & Orange

Like Pretty Woman between Chukka's

Start of the "Old Timer's" display of vintage cars - 'up-close' pics of cars to follow as they passed closer to us

Photo doesn't do this car justice - it was huge. Like a small plane!

I've a later picture of the inside of this one - it is something else!

 Match 2 - Luxembourg in the Orange - 3 of the riders on this team were local with the professional being from Germany
One of the directors from the company my mother works for is in the red helmet on the chestnut with his 17 year old daughter on the darker horse (also in a red helmet) - they were amazing!

 

 

How frickin cute is this horse?!

Old school air conditioning/sun-roof perhaps?! ;-)

Inside of earlier mentioned car!

Sunny Saturday

Summer has finally arrived in Luxembourg...how long it will stay is anyone's guess - but we took full advantage this weekend. I had a wonderful hack Saturday evening (it was too hot to go earlier in the day) and then I spent this afternoon (Sunday) watching a couple Polo Chukka's...photos of that to follow tomorrow as otherwise it would be a total photo overload!

The Guru snapped this after our hack of the "whole" team
Please excuse the state of me!
I don't know why I look like such a sack of spuds, no wonder poor Nancy looks cheesed off!

Saturday's hack was super enjoyable, minus all the bleedin' flies - gosh they were awful! Thankfully our order of fly rugs that can go on under tack arrived and we shall be using them from here on out!

Starting out

Nancy & I  bravely leading the way

As it was so hot we decided that it would be best to do mostly walking, so we brought Kika along on lead. We did one sneaky trot at one stage as the flies were just terrible, unfortunately they seemed to follow us and we couldn't quite get away from them until we were back in under the trees!
I tried when I was in front to turn around to snap a few shots of Kika being a good pack-horse & plodding alongside The Guru & O, but they ended up too blurry so I deleted them!

Sun setting as we got back to the field

We spent about 2 and a half hours wandering around the different trails, having a great old time for ourselves. Photos of the Polo Chukka's and Old-Timer car display (same event) to follow in a post tomorrow - summer really is much more believable when the weather is nice!

Horseware Ho

I went on a bit of a spending spree the weekend before last, but didn't want to post about it until I received the ordered goods. I bought two Amigo Hero Lite turnout rugs and a set of Amigo travel boots for our trip at the end of this month...more on that in a later post!

Source

I also got a Horseware First Aid kit, but it's not with the other stuff, as I had already taken it out to where we are keeping the horses. I figured it'd be of no use to me at home if the horses needed it!
 
Better to have it nearby and not need it that to need it and not have it to hand!


After a quick google, I found full images of the purchased goods - as you can tell from my photo; they are all still in their packaging - here's hoping i won't be needing the rugs any time soon. Fingers crossed summer is here and the rain will buzz off for good!

Fig/Navy/Lilac in 6ft9 for Miss Nancy
Source 

Blue/Yellow in 6ft3 for Miss Kika
Source

My week so far has been thankfully un-eventful, in the best way! :)
Monday evening The Mammy & I went to feed, pick hooves and give the three girls a once over as L couldn't make it.
Tuesday, the Guru & I went for a lovely long hack. I took Nancy and we had our first gallop along a lovely trail. L also reminded me that as we're not likely to be doing any arena work for a while to remember to alternate my diagonals when riding trot through the woods, so that we don't make one side stronger than the other. She also reminded me to try to get the girls to change leads when cantering for the same reason, I have only just started working on this with Kika in an arena, so we'll see if we can implement that on the trails.
Wednesday, I unfortunately had no way of getting to the field - please keep everything crossed for me passing my driver's test first time next week! EEK! *freaking-out*
The Guru had the day off and got out to check on them during the day to feed/give carrots/pick feet & remove any ticks - nasty buggars!
Thursday (last night), the Guru & I both got to the field and went for a small hack, I took Kika this time and we put on our big girl panties and led most of the way including for our canter along the boundaries of a field - where the crops on either side had terrifying monsters in Kika's opinion, so we had some funny side-way leaps from her!

Nancy welcoming us back!

I love the shadow effect,
 if you click & enlarge you might be able to make out
 the dogs in the background!

Two final photos to sign off with, both taken last night. 












The plan for the weekend is to hopefully soak up some sunshine, as temps are finally due to hit high 20s and stay for a few days!
WOOHOO!
Slight downside is evening hacking to avoid the worst heat of the day & evil fly creatures - but I don't mind that so much so long as we get some long over-due infusion of Vit D!

My other plans for the weekend are simply to try fit in some driving practice and get to another yard to check out some Polo matches. One of the Directors of the company my mother works for owns Polo Ponies - so we're hopefully going to get to check them out...I still think it's mad that although I was lucky enough to visit Argentina last autumn, I didn't manage to take in any Polo actions...oh wells, guess i'll just have to make a return trip some time! *rofl*

Family Fun

As title suggests my sister did agree to come on a hack with us, she rode Nancy, I took Miss Kika and L rode her mare O - we were also accompanied by her lovable pooches.

Kika &  I
The silly sod started off in the wrong direction and
then started to get herself upiddy when I wanted to turn around

Usually we head straight for the woods from the field, but as there was an archery competition on over the weekend we decided to take the long route to the woods by hacking 10 - 15minutes on the roads first. The hack started well when Kika decided we were going right, when really we were going left and in typical Kika fashion; she was right - I was wrong and we weren't turning around without a fight. So I let her walk a little, then turned her in the entryway to the field and we headed back in the right direction without anymore fuss - she can be such a silly sod when she want's to be!

My sister asked my mother to snap a few pics before we headed off - however much you guys think (*ahem* know) how much I love photos - my sister is worse and even more snap-happy then me! Shocking...I know! :p

We had a wonderful hack, with some trotting and cantering and all girls behaved beautifully. I couldn't have been happier with our day out exploring the new woods!

 

My sister headed back to Ireland yesterday, she emmigrates to Canada at the end of this month. :(

First one of us to move so far away, but hey...new holiday destination! :D

The Guru & I went for another quick hack yesterday evening, with K & O. Nancy stayed in the field on her own for the first time, my mother came with to keep an eye on her as we left just to be sure she didn't lose the plot altogether. She said she got herself a little upset and called a couple of times, but that she settled fine when she could see the neighbouring horses were still there.

I am super proud of Miss Kika who led the way passed the scary remnants of the archery tournament without an ounce of fuss - she did give them a wide berth & a bit of an eyeball but passed them without any of her patented spinning/rearing tricks. We also had our first proper gallop in years and bravely went down a steep path into the stream - I love having a water loving horse. 

We have such fun splashing through puddles together, Nancy isn't overly fond of puddles but can be persuaded to splash with me - however Kika is like a Hippo and we have great fun splashing about! :)

Not sure what my plan is for this evening, L isn't going to make it so I'm feeding O for her and checking her over. Haven't quite decided if I'll go for a hack alone or take advantage of the Mammy driving me there to skedaddle and get some more driving practice before the test next week - eek! Fingers crossed I pass first time, I really need my license!