Post by racaille on Aug 27, 2015 17:14:43 GMT
Just back from my outing to the Alpes and well, it was a laugh, really good fun, but boy, are we cursed campers 
After three months of extreme drought the weather broke and it wasn't rain, it was a constant waterfall. Luckily it stayed dry for the drive up there and we were able to whack the tents up quickly, then leap on our horses for a SJ clinic, which went very well. But as we were finishing the heavens opened - it is hard to describe as I'm not sure you get rain like it in the UK. It was so heavy that I could barely see Paco's head from the saddle.
So we dived into the manage to let it pass but it didn't so we decided to put the horses in some spare looseboxes but found that some of them were already flooded. The water running down the tracks was already so deep that it came over the tops of my joddie boots so I spent three days riding with sodden feet - and legs too from my wet leather chaps.
By now I was utterly soaked to the skin and ruddy cold so passed on a dressage session in the manege in the afternoon and went to do the food shopping instead. What people must have thought as I dripped around the supermarket in drenched riding gear I have no idea but it was even colder in there than outside. I hadn't wanted to change into my dry gear as then I would have had two sets of wet clothes and nothing else. We bought loads of food and wine and cooked up a storm in the campsite kitchen (at the riding club we were using) and ended up having a great evening.
I was grateful that my new tent was waterproof but I didn't sleep at all: my new 'self-inflating' mattress didn't and wasn't anywhere thick enough to be called a mattress. And it was slippery, so that my shiny sleeping bag just slid off it every time I moved
And despite my fleece and jimjams, it was cold at night. I'd obviously forgotten that we were in the Alpes ......
However, the next day dawned fine - and believe me I did see the dawn. We started with a dressage session and Paco tried hard to be 'scared' by the puddle at one end of the arena, by the noise in the manege next to us, by the sun glinting off the roof of the clubhouse .... so I put him to work and after a while he calmed down. I was working on my test but I was having terrible trouble remembering it. Is this old age? My coach warned me it was tricky because it is not symmetrical and my brain has turned to mush, obviously. I forgot to put my inside hand forward during the left lead canter and also that the final right lead canter starts down the side, not at A. But Paco was doing some good stuff, particularly his lateral work (not included in the test, it's a trot/canter/halt/canter/trot/canter one).
In the afternoon the ground had dried enough for us to head for the XC course. There were some really interesting jumps and although I passed on the white-painted log over the hole
I did everything else my coach suggested and even asked to have a go at the castle! There was an oh-my-gawd moment as I was steaming up a slope towards a rather intimidating solid spa when Paco tripped and I thought we were heading for a faceplant so I gathered him up and went straight on rather than round towards the jump. This was not a great idea in one way as I had ample opportunity to see the size and solid-ness of the spa and I was tempted to give up but then I manned up and put him back into a good canter up the slope again and did what I should have done all along: not look at the jump, but where I was heading. I confess I was surprised that he sailed over it so just to make sure it wasn't a fluke I did it again 
After our final night of fun (drinking mohitos, although I did go to bed early and left the young uns to it) we were able to choose our discipline for the final session the next day. I went for a dressage clinic and this time nailed my test I was working on me too, as I have a bad habit of asking for too much of everything (hmm, that is a bit 'me' in life too).
In the afternoon I went along on Paco to accompany Sam on the XC course just to watch - and boy, I wouldn't have missed the most spectacular tumble for the world!
Sam was being a total star and jumping everything but when it came to the water he just wasn't having any of it. (I think he remembers falling over in the pond a while back only too well.) So the teenager put him at a big 'house' which he sailed over, then he took a few strides to the water ... and stopped dead. It was a reasonably big drop down into murky water and he just said no.
So the teenager asked again with more conviction and he thought hard about it. And then said no. So she insisted and he thought about giving in. But he decided against. Except that his front feet were now teetering on the bank and despite him trying hard not to, he started to slip ... so he thought he'd better pretend to jump in rather than just fall in so with his big back end he gave a tremendous push off. He landed in a heap in the water and the teenager was catapulted off into the sludge and re-emerged covered in silt and weed. Sam struggled up but was kind enough not to beggar off which was lucky as we were none of us in a fit state to catch him since we were falling on the floor with laughter. No harm done to anyone but poor old Sam now has even more reason not to like water.
Despite the rain and the cold and the camping 'fails' it was a brilliant three days. We had great fun and all got on really well and were sorry to head for home. Not Sam though: I loaded Paco and while the teenager held Sam's lead rope quite long to put up Paco's bum bar, Sam strolled into the trailer all by himself and waited patiently to be tied up. Bless
After three months of extreme drought the weather broke and it wasn't rain, it was a constant waterfall. Luckily it stayed dry for the drive up there and we were able to whack the tents up quickly, then leap on our horses for a SJ clinic, which went very well. But as we were finishing the heavens opened - it is hard to describe as I'm not sure you get rain like it in the UK. It was so heavy that I could barely see Paco's head from the saddle.
So we dived into the manage to let it pass but it didn't so we decided to put the horses in some spare looseboxes but found that some of them were already flooded. The water running down the tracks was already so deep that it came over the tops of my joddie boots so I spent three days riding with sodden feet - and legs too from my wet leather chaps.
By now I was utterly soaked to the skin and ruddy cold so passed on a dressage session in the manege in the afternoon and went to do the food shopping instead. What people must have thought as I dripped around the supermarket in drenched riding gear I have no idea but it was even colder in there than outside. I hadn't wanted to change into my dry gear as then I would have had two sets of wet clothes and nothing else. We bought loads of food and wine and cooked up a storm in the campsite kitchen (at the riding club we were using) and ended up having a great evening.
I was grateful that my new tent was waterproof but I didn't sleep at all: my new 'self-inflating' mattress didn't and wasn't anywhere thick enough to be called a mattress. And it was slippery, so that my shiny sleeping bag just slid off it every time I moved
And despite my fleece and jimjams, it was cold at night. I'd obviously forgotten that we were in the Alpes ......However, the next day dawned fine - and believe me I did see the dawn. We started with a dressage session and Paco tried hard to be 'scared' by the puddle at one end of the arena, by the noise in the manege next to us, by the sun glinting off the roof of the clubhouse .... so I put him to work and after a while he calmed down. I was working on my test but I was having terrible trouble remembering it. Is this old age? My coach warned me it was tricky because it is not symmetrical and my brain has turned to mush, obviously. I forgot to put my inside hand forward during the left lead canter and also that the final right lead canter starts down the side, not at A. But Paco was doing some good stuff, particularly his lateral work (not included in the test, it's a trot/canter/halt/canter/trot/canter one).
In the afternoon the ground had dried enough for us to head for the XC course. There were some really interesting jumps and although I passed on the white-painted log over the hole
I did everything else my coach suggested and even asked to have a go at the castle! There was an oh-my-gawd moment as I was steaming up a slope towards a rather intimidating solid spa when Paco tripped and I thought we were heading for a faceplant so I gathered him up and went straight on rather than round towards the jump. This was not a great idea in one way as I had ample opportunity to see the size and solid-ness of the spa and I was tempted to give up but then I manned up and put him back into a good canter up the slope again and did what I should have done all along: not look at the jump, but where I was heading. I confess I was surprised that he sailed over it so just to make sure it wasn't a fluke I did it again 
After our final night of fun (drinking mohitos, although I did go to bed early and left the young uns to it) we were able to choose our discipline for the final session the next day. I went for a dressage clinic and this time nailed my test
I was working on me too, as I have a bad habit of asking for too much of everything (hmm, that is a bit 'me' in life too).In the afternoon I went along on Paco to accompany Sam on the XC course just to watch - and boy, I wouldn't have missed the most spectacular tumble for the world!
Sam was being a total star and jumping everything but when it came to the water he just wasn't having any of it. (I think he remembers falling over in the pond a while back only too well.) So the teenager put him at a big 'house' which he sailed over, then he took a few strides to the water ... and stopped dead. It was a reasonably big drop down into murky water and he just said no. So the teenager asked again with more conviction and he thought hard about it. And then said no. So she insisted and he thought about giving in. But he decided against. Except that his front feet were now teetering on the bank and despite him trying hard not to, he started to slip ... so he thought he'd better pretend to jump in rather than just fall in so with his big back end he gave a tremendous push off. He landed in a heap in the water and the teenager was catapulted off into the sludge and re-emerged covered in silt and weed. Sam struggled up but was kind enough not to beggar off which was lucky as we were none of us in a fit state to catch him since we were falling on the floor with laughter. No harm done to anyone but poor old Sam now has even more reason not to like water.
Despite the rain and the cold and the camping 'fails' it was a brilliant three days. We had great fun and all got on really well and were sorry to head for home. Not Sam though: I loaded Paco and while the teenager held Sam's lead rope quite long to put up Paco's bum bar, Sam strolled into the trailer all by himself and waited patiently to be tied up. Bless
for so much hard work we thank ye!!
