j1ffy
Well-Known Member
How's that for a bit of alliteration?!
I don't often post but the weekend was so incredible that I had to share Many of you on here have heard of Rockley Farm and there are quite a few forumites with horses who have been successfully rehabbed from 'navicular' and other palmar hoof issues there (including my boy Pocholo!). Back in September, we had a Rockley Rehab Reunion at Aston-Le-Walls and three of us (Nic who runs Rockley, Lucy (another rehab owner, aka Lucemoose on here) and myself) hatched a new reunion plan. It turns out that Nic and I shared a childhood ambition to ride the full bridleway section of the Ridgeway - Nic as she loved The Moon Stallion as a kid, and me because I'd loved White Horse Hill, Wayland's Smithy and Avebury since I can remember. Determined to make the plan a reality, I spent the last four months or so planning and cajoling various people to bring the idea to life. At the weekend it finally all came together!
We set off late morning on Friday from Streatley. All the horses were fab, loading calmly and waiting patiently while we faffed around then all keen to get going! The terrain started out flinty but none of the horses were bothered in the slightest. We made our way to East Hendred where my amazing mum was waiting with a picnic, with a few canters (and one unplanned gallop - oops!) on the way:
After a lunch we had a leisurely walk for 5 miles to our overnight stop...thanks to 'scone stitch' (lunch included warm scones, jam and cream!!) we couldn't go any faster Here's something you couldn't do on a shod horse!
Saturday evening we had a fantastic meal at a local pub (yes, food was something of a theme...as it tends to be when I organise anything!!), which set us up for our marathon day on Sunday. We left the Wantage yard early with the lorries to drop them off at our Sunday stop, but Google maps took us on a slightly random route. Mini Coopers aren't designed for off-roading but my little car coped well :O
Saturday morning saw us reach White Horse Hill at Uffington, and we had a magical 20 minutes of riding past Uffington Castle to the top of the White Horse itself. All the horses got quite lively up there, I'm sure they picked up on the spirit of Epona. It's a truly magical place:
Pocholo doing his 'angry Spanish horse wants to go faster' face:
We stopped at Wayland's Smithy for a quick look at the long barrow, then it was a bit of a slow ride to our lunch stop at Fox Hill thanks to stony hardcore tracks. The views of course were stunning! All the horses walked calmly over the M4 bridge then back onto the bridleway - finally we had some grass so we had a couple of miles of trots and canters just as a shower came in. A few more miles of pretty trackway with bluebells, cowslips and snowdrops lining the path and we got to our Sunday night stopover - a wonderful B&B called Cunetio. Once again we were incredibly well fed by the absolutely lovely owners.
Monday was a comparatively short, but fast, ride. Barbury Castle was fantastic, complete with long gallops and outstanding views. Then we headed into Avebury to spot some druids :lol: and get into an argument with a National Trust lady. And to see some standing stones of course! We must be in a thousand tourist photos as the place was packed. Pocholo managed to scare a little girl who came to pat him by nuzzling her neck in return. Silly boy! We then had a final canter before arriving at the end for the last of my mum's amazing picnics.
Barbury gallops...it would be rude not to..
Avebury standing stones and Pocholo:
The weather approaching - luckily we had finished and had just had our lunch!
Unfortunately we did get soaked while waiting for our lift home, but seeing as it was the only heavy rain we saw all weekend it was quickly forgotten.
The best thing about the whole weekend is that we've raised over £2700 (so far!) for Willberry Wonder Pony. Hannah Francis was such an inspiration and to think that we've helped her charity in this small way is just fantastic.
There are more photos (including hoof pics!) and a video on Nic's blog here: http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/ridgeway-ride-result.html
I don't often post but the weekend was so incredible that I had to share Many of you on here have heard of Rockley Farm and there are quite a few forumites with horses who have been successfully rehabbed from 'navicular' and other palmar hoof issues there (including my boy Pocholo!). Back in September, we had a Rockley Rehab Reunion at Aston-Le-Walls and three of us (Nic who runs Rockley, Lucy (another rehab owner, aka Lucemoose on here) and myself) hatched a new reunion plan. It turns out that Nic and I shared a childhood ambition to ride the full bridleway section of the Ridgeway - Nic as she loved The Moon Stallion as a kid, and me because I'd loved White Horse Hill, Wayland's Smithy and Avebury since I can remember. Determined to make the plan a reality, I spent the last four months or so planning and cajoling various people to bring the idea to life. At the weekend it finally all came together!
We set off late morning on Friday from Streatley. All the horses were fab, loading calmly and waiting patiently while we faffed around then all keen to get going! The terrain started out flinty but none of the horses were bothered in the slightest. We made our way to East Hendred where my amazing mum was waiting with a picnic, with a few canters (and one unplanned gallop - oops!) on the way:
After a lunch we had a leisurely walk for 5 miles to our overnight stop...thanks to 'scone stitch' (lunch included warm scones, jam and cream!!) we couldn't go any faster Here's something you couldn't do on a shod horse!
Saturday evening we had a fantastic meal at a local pub (yes, food was something of a theme...as it tends to be when I organise anything!!), which set us up for our marathon day on Sunday. We left the Wantage yard early with the lorries to drop them off at our Sunday stop, but Google maps took us on a slightly random route. Mini Coopers aren't designed for off-roading but my little car coped well :O
Saturday morning saw us reach White Horse Hill at Uffington, and we had a magical 20 minutes of riding past Uffington Castle to the top of the White Horse itself. All the horses got quite lively up there, I'm sure they picked up on the spirit of Epona. It's a truly magical place:
Pocholo doing his 'angry Spanish horse wants to go faster' face:
We stopped at Wayland's Smithy for a quick look at the long barrow, then it was a bit of a slow ride to our lunch stop at Fox Hill thanks to stony hardcore tracks. The views of course were stunning! All the horses walked calmly over the M4 bridge then back onto the bridleway - finally we had some grass so we had a couple of miles of trots and canters just as a shower came in. A few more miles of pretty trackway with bluebells, cowslips and snowdrops lining the path and we got to our Sunday night stopover - a wonderful B&B called Cunetio. Once again we were incredibly well fed by the absolutely lovely owners.
Monday was a comparatively short, but fast, ride. Barbury Castle was fantastic, complete with long gallops and outstanding views. Then we headed into Avebury to spot some druids :lol: and get into an argument with a National Trust lady. And to see some standing stones of course! We must be in a thousand tourist photos as the place was packed. Pocholo managed to scare a little girl who came to pat him by nuzzling her neck in return. Silly boy! We then had a final canter before arriving at the end for the last of my mum's amazing picnics.
Barbury gallops...it would be rude not to..
Avebury standing stones and Pocholo:
The weather approaching - luckily we had finished and had just had our lunch!
Unfortunately we did get soaked while waiting for our lift home, but seeing as it was the only heavy rain we saw all weekend it was quickly forgotten.
The best thing about the whole weekend is that we've raised over £2700 (so far!) for Willberry Wonder Pony. Hannah Francis was such an inspiration and to think that we've helped her charity in this small way is just fantastic.
There are more photos (including hoof pics!) and a video on Nic's blog here: http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/ridgeway-ride-result.html