Outside weekend

We´ve spent a lovely weekend pottering about and being outside. After an obligatory shopping excursion into Lismore on Saturday morning, Tess, Yarrow, Niki and myself worked on planting the rest of the Orange trumpet vine along the front perimeter and around the water tank (the latter a great idea of Yarrow´s). Post-hole digger, seaweed (fertilizer), water, mulch, plants and the ride-on mower did the trick and by nightfall we had the job done. ). Hopefully, once it takes off, we´ll have festive orange vines lining the south side of the property (or weeds covering everywhere and everything, as some have it ...).

We also spent time playing with Duchess on Saturday: Tess was keen to get back on the horse after not having ridden for a few months and enjoyed it to the full (although Duchess is, admittedly, a tad small for her).

After Tess, Niki had a few rounds around the fig-tree (for those not quite in the know, in the South-Western part of the property, map to follow in a next post). It all went quite well, with lots of laughter and enthusiasm when, suddenly, during one round where Niki got Duchess to go into a canter, Duchess had the brilliant idea of bucking and throwing Niki off... as in: off. Oh dear ... Trooper that she is, though, my love got back on immediately and with a brave face and a big smile continued on her way. Afterwards, she confided in me that she had actually been keen to experience what this ´being thrown´ entailed, as it´s better to know than to keep fearing it - and apparently, it wasn´t all that bad, although a sore posterior and a sore shoulder came with the territory... A visual impression. Don´t worry - during this experiment no animals were hurt... (and most of it show Niki very expertly and confidently riding!)

Needless to say, as we have a third horse here, Promise (Anjes´horse) also needed, and got, some attention. We have been getting her used to people and tackle by playing with her regularly and putting a head collar on her. Once earlier this week I took her into the roundyard for some training, which she did really well. So, today, we felt some more roundyard training was called for, and we video-ed it for Anjes! She is so good, Anjes: obedient, quick on the uptake, intelligent and sweet. Next stop - a horse blanket and a saddle ...

Saturday evening we imbibed some cinematography, i.e. we watched British cultural film icon Bend it like Beckham, one of Niki´s ´you must see this´movies.

After a leisurely lie-in on Sunday (for those who don´t know what an Australian lie-in entails, we´re talking 8 o´clock max...) we went to the Bangalow market (where Tess and Yarrow scored Organic Donuts - the best (and biggest) ever). Subsequently, we dropped Tess off at work around 11, and enjoyed a cup of chai tea, coffee and cakes at the Eltham Pantry, in the sun. (Who´s complaining about lifestyle? Not us).

It was now time for Hans to get Samson aka BigBoy out of the paddock and prepare him for a ride, which ended up a stroll through a neighbour´s property, just quiet enough to instill some confidence in said rider who hadn´t been riding since last year around this time. All went well, and with new confidence instilled we´ll no doubt be riding more.