The Horses

This is the team. Persil Beaucoup in the middle Nibbler B'stard otherwise known as Bullshit Brown eating as usual and my friend Melissa's horse Tango on the right.

Persil and I do Competitive Trail riding. He is very good at it. IN fact we came first in the last one we did which was on incredibly steep country - see pics in 40 degree heat. Quite a few horses dropped out but Persil just cruised around. This is his first year of competing. Actually it's his first full year of being ridden. He's six years old but had a terrible accident at around 3 when he was put through a fence by some asshole on a motorbike. He was turned out for 3years to recover. Then I came along and felt sorry for him. He was very scared when I first saw him and couldn't be caught. You should just try NOT to catch him now!

Anyway here we are on a ride...

Persil just loves his rides. He's only a little horse but he's the gutsiest horse I've ever known. From being a horse who was terrified of everyone and everything, he now has confidence in spades.

He's also a horse with a sense of humour about everything. He plays with me in the paddock and unties himself and pulls the other horses round by their lead ropes.

He's always happy and always up to mischief. I just love him.

Persil was originally bred for polocrosse. He is 3/4 Thoroughbred and 1/4 Australian Stock Horse. He has an incredible attitude about life. He gets frights very easily from anything that moves suddenly but he calms down as soon as he's worked out what it is. He will go anywhere for me even across ricketty old bridges and any obstacle, he once jumped an entire water trough with me on him - not because I asked him to but he thought I had. I actually just walked him up to it to see if he wanted a drink - DUH!

It is almost time for his holiday, just one more endurance ride in two weeks and then He'll be turned out for a few months while I work Nibbler.

This is the country we rode on the last ride. it's big beautiful country at the back of Masterton - Tinui. (new Zealand)

Riding is by far the best way to see the country - I think.

I am also aware of just how lucky I am to be able to do this at last. It's incredible.

Here's some images taken early in the morning of the horses and the farm ...

This is Nibbler scratching himself in the morning light.

Nibbler is very beautiful, I hope to do dressage on him. I've only just started working him after being turned out for a year to heal a sprained fetlock. I bought him with his sprain on the basis that he would need to be turned out for so long. it's been worth it.

He is completely different to ride than Persil. Nibbler sulks and throws little tantrums. luckily he's so comfortable to ride it's like riding a lazy boy chair so his tantrums are of no consequence. They're getting less and less too.

This is Tango with Persil peering out from behind her.

I rode Tango for Melissa while Melissa was sick. She's a beautiful horse to ride and the following landscapes are taken from her broad back....

Enough said.