TransHu Autumn 2013: Day Four
A very long and tough day – therefore no blog last night. At 08:30 sharp Mr. Many’s minibus whisked us off through the Tunnel de Puymorens to reunite us with the horses. Either because of incidents or somewhat mismatched horses, there was some shuffling around but we were still on the road pretty rapidly. Lots […]
TransHu Autumn 2013: Day Three
At 9 sharp, everyone was in the meadow ready to catch, brush and saddle up their horse. At 10 the “caravane” was ready to depart. From La Pastorale at 1500m the route took us through Porté-Puymorens over the hairpins of the old road to the Col de Puymorens at 1915m. Contrary to previous occasions, we […]
TransHu Autumn 2013: Day Two
The rest of the group arrived just in time for breakfast and then it was all hands on deck rounding up the horses. Being spread over a few thousand hectares, that can be quite a job but luckily about 65 were on the lower slopes – but the last few had disappeared up the mountainside! […]
TransHu Autumn 2013: Day One
Actually day two since I started out yesterday afternoon, but since I didn’t arrive until 08:00 this morning, we’ll call this Day One. Actually a quiet day – people start drifting in from around lunchtime and find themselves in the middle of some activity or another. The main jobs today were to do with insuring […]
The Sky Cried For You
Cira *28 February 1993 †21 November 2013 With great sadness in our hearts but with the knowledge that the right moment has come, we said farewell to a wonderful companion this morning. Cira came from the race track completely broken at three years old. Trained and raced from 18 months, she was “retired” injured. Happily, […]
Transhumance d’Automne 2013
In less than four weeks we will have begun the 2013 edition of the “Transhumance d’automne”. Twice a year, a herd of ±70 horses, of which 15 are ridden, are led over the Pyrenees from Porta, in de Vallée de Carol to Denis in the Aude. This journey takes four days in the late autumn […]
What does the vet know?
It’s worrying, but how often do vets actually know what they are talking about when it comes to hoofs and feed? Most veterinary colleges are geared up to small animal and/or livestock work these days and the specific equine knowledge is still rooted firmly in the late 19th / early 20th century. True, we have […]
Rubbish in the Meadow
It is vitally important to know what is lying around your horse’s field. Although horses are not stupid and, in general, they don’t eat things they are not supposed to eat (at least, not when they are grazing) there are moments when this can break down. There is a lot of worry among horse owners […]
Subscriptions
A little later than promised, but here they are, the details of the subscriptions: Currently on offer are subscriptions for 6 and 8 weeks – covering any 48 week period, so they can start at any time. For a 6 weekly subscription, the fee is €285. This is a saving of over 10%. For an […]
Windchill
For many of us, the weather is rather inclement at the moment. In many parts of Europe snowfall has given a very wintry vista and the wind has also started to get up. The combination of low temperatures and wind has given us a new addition to our vocabulary in the past thirty odd years […]