Cholmondeley fun ride :)

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anna22

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A late night on saturday did not make for a happy horse owner when my alarm when off at 0730 sunday morning.... I am not a morning person even after a full 8 hours, so after 6 I was not a happy bunny.
Grimaces and photophobia soon started to waver when I opened the curtains to a stunning autumn morning, mist rolling across the fields and a cool sun blazing down :D
A cup of tea and a brisk dog walk later and I was feeling much more human!
Off to the yard, on arrival I was delighted to see that in a whole field full of grass the Grey One had managed to face plant in a poo. And was sporting a rather fetching green stain across the whole of the left side of his face. Joy. This was also accompanied by a delightful selection of thistle heads tightly embedded onto virtually every strand of hair longer than 1cm.
Boxed and on our way and only 10mins behind schedule.
Arrived at the STUNNING Cholmondeley Castle grounds, paid my dues, met with my friends, tacked up and off we went :)
The ground was perfect, the setting was perfect. My rising 21 year old however was not. Being the oldest horse in the group, a certain level of decorum was expected... the Grey One however felt that on his first XC ride in 5 months mature, sensible behaviour was generally not required.
Proceed to several miles of jogging, prancing and collected cantering! Thankfully we soon arrived at a part of the ride that passed through the Harthill Stud XC ride - much to the geriatric horses' delight!
Having been a SJ most of his life, the Grey One was a late starter to XC and it has taken 2 years for him to realise it is actually fantastic fun! Here are the links to some photos - he thoroughly enjoyed himself!

http://www.aljohnstonphotography.com/product/nspcc-44-2/

http://www.aljohnstonphotography.com/product/nspcc-45-2/

I hoped this would have settled him, but he was sadly even less settled after he realised we might be doing more jumping. And I was forced to take the hooligan ahead of my friends in order to maintain any sensible level of control.

But I had a fabulous day, he felt like a 5 year old :D And in spite of his regression into adolescence he rode amazingly.
And I can't resist this one of the handsome devil :)

http://www.aljohnstonphotography.com/product/nspcc-57/

I'd recommend the ride to anyone in Cheshire, not quite enough 'open' fields for my liking where you can let the brake off completely. But the scenery, helpers and atmosphere was great :)
 
I saw some pics of it on Facebook. It looked lovely. I didn't realise there was a fun ride there. Do you know who organises it and where did you see it advertised? It's something I'd look out for in the future..
 
Gorgeous! My friend has been and said the same as you - got a bit hairy in a big group! Mind you, doesn't it always. I might give it a try next year instead of Marbury.
 
Lovely report and pics. It's lovely scenery, but if they're still starting you off in the Mosses (boggy woodland), there's not much room to let off steam in the early stages

I had a very embarrassing ride there one year on the late chesnut git, who made a complete overwrought pillock of himself :o.

There used to be two Chlomondeley rides in October, one at the beginning of the month and one at the end, with different organisers I believe. I've googled but not found reference to a second ride this year, unless anyone else knows differently?
 
Honey08 said:
I saw some pics of it on Facebook. It looked lovely. I didn't realise there was a fun ride there. Do you know who organises it and where did you see it advertised? It's something I'd look out for in the future..
Click to expand...

It is on the cheshire horse.co.uk website under the events page. Its a bit of a trawl but they list pretty much everything on there :)

Foxford said:
Gorgeous! My friend has been and said the same as you - got a bit hairy in a big group! Mind you, doesn't it always. I might give it a try next year instead of Marbury.
Click to expand...

Yes not a huge amount of room to let off steam so it was a little hair raising trying to allow a quick gallop and then trying to pull them all up! There's a nice mix so you can have a quick blast, then some nice 'calming' (if your horse is normal) roadwork.
You do pass a rather stunning racing stables - complete with gallops and steeplechases... sadly it isn't part of the ride :(

Tiddlypom said:
Lovely report and pics. It's lovely scenery, but if they're still starting you off in the Mosses (boggy woodland), there's not much room to let off steam in the early stages

I had a very embarrassing ride there one year on the late chesnut git, who made a complete overwrought pillock of himself :o.

There used to be two Chlomondeley rides in October, one at the beginning of the month and one at the end, with different organisers I believe. I've googled but not found reference to a second ride this year, unless anyone else knows differently?
Click to expand...

The moses were at the end I think, it was just finding a field big enough to really let them go in! I haven't seen the second ride anywhere - this one was for the NSPCC i believe!
 
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