Wednesday 13th May

Can't believe so much of the month has gone past already. Everything is growing so fast, lambs, grass, puppy, vegetables - amazing.

 Here is a picture of Genghis as he is now - big improvement though still a little way to go. Tilly Hepburn-Wright rode him at a pleasure ride at Resolis last weekend and spent the rest of the day with a grin from ear to ear - they got on really well and Genghis enjoyed himself.

Roxy, who is now working for me, took Khomma and also enjoyed her first pleasure ride - riding with Sarah Norris on her young cob mare, Topi. Duncan Seton also had his first ride on his new arab gelding, Danny, who used to belong to Marina from Argyll. And, finally, Louis loved having his first outing for a while. In fact, a great time was had by all in beautiful sunshine and with lovely tracks to ride on. Many thanks to Joe and his helpers for putting the ride on.

Heather the Red from Tayside has decided to take on Eric, the little grey Arab that was advertised on the website and will be up for him at the weekend and we are to get another 4 y.o. Arab gelding in to work on.

So who said that Iain didn't want a puppy?!! And another trugfull of home reared lettuces heads down to the Dores Inn. I must admit to being well pleased with this lot.

Monday 25th May

Yesterday was the Kingussie Ride at which Tali completed his 2nd STQ at 14.6 kph. Slowest speed I could keep him to without extreme fighting. The first loop he was very strong but then settled to his work on the second time round and gave me a really nice ride. Hopefully we will get him to Perth to attempt his STF there. Sarah Norris rode Gengis this time and popped him round another 32 km ride with Tilly which will all help add to his fitness as this ride would have been hillier than the one he did last week at Westruther with Tilly. He is starting to look really good now and is very easy to take around the country, making friends wherever he goes. Just about anyone can get on and ride him too which is great. Thanks to Avril for putting on another good ride this year. Yes, there is quite a bit of roadwork and some hard forest tracks, but there is also lots of variety and some beautiful grassy and hill tracks with fabulous views that more than make up for it. A special thanks to Vivien Taylor for giving up her ride in order to vet the ride for us when the booked vet cried off with a broken wrist the previous week. I guess Vivien really had no choice as there would have been no ride for her anyway but the rest of us riders really did appreciate her doing this for us.

Last weekend I took our big coloured horse, Iggy, to a 12 mile pleasure ride at which he acquitted himself well. He is amazingly fit considering he has come from the flat county of Norfolk. We took Duncan with us on Danny but he was too busy getting a bronze medal in his other sport of judo to come to the ride at Kingussie this week. Well done, Duncan!

Iggy and I with Duncan and Danny at the Black Isle Fun Ride in aid of the Raddery School trip to the Yukon. It was really lovely riding weather though the tracks were really rather hard.

We have a new horse coming to us next week. He is a 16 h.h. Appaloosa gelding - a striking leopard spot of 5 years old. He should make a good all-rounder, so we look forward to seeing him.

Next week is also the Adult Camp (from Tuesday to Thursday) so we will be looking forward to more fun and games iwth that! The instructors this time will be Stephen Cruickshank and Sarah Farquhar and it is being run through the Caledonian Riding Club though I guess I am still the facilitator.

Rock Ness is also just around the corner so we are also gearing up for that and the hosting of the Champagne and Strawberry stall in the VIP area in aid of the South Loch Ness Access Group.