Epic-Adventures

Training at Southwell Racecourse with Beccy Broughton

2012-05-21T04:58:00.001-07:00

Well I haven't blogged for a while because I have been extremely busy settling back into the UK.

Last week I went on a hunt ride with the Atherstone Hunt with my mum riding Elsa and me riding Arco. It was lots of fun and the ponies did very well barefoot after there introduction to lots of English grass!

The highlight of my return to the UK has to be the training afternoon with GB Endurance rider Beccy Broughton at Southwell racecourse organised by Sport Endurance. Beccy gave me loads of useful tips for training Elsa and Arco and I was very pleased that she seemed to really like them and was interested to know that they were Hispano-Arabe. Hopefully I can put what Beccy told me into practice and qualify Elsa through the lower levels this year. It will be interesting to see how their feet do hold up now they are on a UK diet. I can't wait to go on Beccy's Endurance Summer Camp in August!

Holistic or Natural Horse-Keeping?

2012-04-24T12:51:00.002-07:00

I have changed the title of my Horse-Keeping page from 'Natural' to 'Holistic'. This is since I have been reading some articles by a NZ guy named Andy Beck. Although Andy does with his horse what most people would refer to as 'natural' he states that nothing we do with horses is natural purely because we have taken them out of the wild and domesticated them and we usually expect to ride them!

After analysing my own intentions with horses I came to the conclusion that what I am trying to do is actually keep my horses holistically ie. a whole horse approach. Since I keep my horses barefoot this is crucial to the well being of my horses as anything that is wrong will often be shown in the feet first eg. poor diet, stress etc.

As you know from my other blog posts I am currently on my way to the UK with 2 of my Spanish horses so I will keep you updated as to how they cope being on a livery yard and kept of grass. I suspect it will be very interesting and a steep learning curve!

3 Star Hotel courtesy of Asda Breakdown!

2012-04-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

Well its been a while since I blogged mainly because we've done practically nothing since my last blog! Gaz returned to London First Class with Air France courtesy of Asda Breakdown and I stayed in Font with the dogs and the horses while waiting for the van to be repaired. Basically I've just spent the last week getting rained on and amusing myself on the internet with my Orange dongle (money well spent). At least I've made a start on my Equine Sciences Academy Barefoot course which is impressively good!

Mr VW on his 3rd recovery truck in 3 weeks!

You may wonder why I've posted a pic of Mr VW on the recovery truck?....

This morning I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make the ferry before the doggy Pet Pasports had to be re-done for tapeworm but I picked up the van at 11am and just thought 'Oh well, never mind, at least I'll get to the UK tomorrow'. So I drove to the field and collect the dogs to go back to the vets for a second dose of tablets. I went to start the van with dogs on board (thankfully not horses!) and it made the horrendous hedgestrimmer noise again. 'F...ing Great!' is what I thought! After that it wouldn't start again hence why he is back on another recovery truck!!!!!!!

So I have spent the day swaying between the thoughts of 'Oh my God, I'm lost for words, I can't F...ing believe it' and ' Oh well lets just try to be jolly and think of all the much worse things that can happen in life'. I think I may be completely doing Gaz's head in cos my bad moods last about the few minutes that I'm actually ranting but then I can talk myself out of them pretty fast. He doesn't like to hear it when he's P....ed off and and I'm saying it doesn't really matter and are lives aren't exactly terrible!

I've definately come to the conclusion from all this that I have a pretty good positive attitude in life but it is pretty hard sometimes! Anyway it seems that although I posted this morning on Facebook that I was starting to struggle with turning negatives into positives it seems that this negative has managed it after all....

Happy doggies on their own personal 3 star bed!

Ted, Mog and I are now in a very nice 3 star hotel in Nemours courtsey of Asda Breakdown via IMA! We're definately pretty happy right now and have got ourselves nicely settled in for the night. So now I'm feeling sorry for Gaz who's having to do all the work to pay for my seemingly expensive hobby!

Rock Star

2012-04-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

Its not often that you get the chance to have your photo taken with a real 'Rock Star' - This little Frenchman was very happy to meet the real 'Gaz Parry'!

JP Bouvier and Gaz Parry at Rocher Canon

Gaz was having a rest day today so I thought it would be good to work on easy blocs that actually aren't. Another frenchman with 40yrs experience took me under his wing when he saw me struggling on a red. He told me its all about technique and these new 'Rock Stars' are all about the compression. After having my feet literally moved to the right holds and my arse spotted closely I decided to whip my top off, pull out the guns and flash one. He said I was a star pupil!

My best life so far.... Living in Fontainebleau

2012-04-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

Well I have no idea what day it is and have had no idea of time at all over the past few days, all I know is that we seem to have done alot! I have always had a strange little concept that we don't live one life, we live many lives throughout our lifetime and that we aren't the same person we started out as. Sounds a bit strange but anyway, the past couple of weeks may just have been my best life so far, which is saying alot seen as so many things seem to have gone wrong! So here is a photo blog of the past few days since my last post...

Ponies and our little hire car outside our new home - 'La Maison Lapin'

We're currently living in an ex rabbit hut on the field we found to rent in Larchant. The horses are loving it and Arco is haviong lots of fun just randomly galloping around the field (hence also laying down alot to rest his baby legs!) They're both loving cantering round the forest on rides too!

Ted and Gaz in 'La Maison Lapin'

We're now fully back online with Orange 'Lets Go Pass' PAYG internet, just buy a sim for 8 euros with 100mb and then we topped up 25 euros for 1 month/ 2GB. So we're all sorted in our little hut with double bed for us (Metolious mat), single bed for the dogs (DMM mat), kitchen area and office!

'We love Mountains' and Boulders!

After their great hospitality last week, 'We Love Mountains' paid us a visit in Larchant. We'd love a van like this! We Love VW's!

Gaz the Happy Europcar Driver

Since our horsebox broke down we have been running around in a little hire car courtesy of our Asda European Breakdown cover. (The garage here quoted just under 2k to repair a burnt out clutch and starter motor so the van is going to be repatriated to the UK next week to be repaired at MOT Dover for 820!) Unforunately the little car decided to go a bit haywire, randomly not starting 'Anomalie Electronique' and the lights and windscreen wipers going on and off of their own accord. So we spent a whole afternoon in Europcar Nemours before having to drive to Melun to pick up the smallest hire car in the world! Suprisingly the diddy Renault Twingo can fit 2 people, 2 giant dogs, a giant Metolious mat, a DMM mat and our bag of climbing gear in it, all without having to take the seats out!

Weather in Fontainebleau

The weather has been pretty perfect the whole time we've been here. We've had the odd shower and one day we got hit by a hailstorm at Bas Cuvier but it didn't last long and this beautiful rainbow came out within 10mins. Conditions on the rock are brill with near perfect friction without it being too cold.

Kate on random 7a+ at Drei Zinnen

After living in Spain for 3yrs doing no bouldering whatsover I told Gaz that I'd be psyched to do a 7a while we're in Font. That very day I did a 7a+ at Canche aux Merciers within a couple of goes only for Gaz to downgrade it to 6c+ even though it took him about 10 goes (no exageration!). So today I did a 7a at Buthiers which felt much harder that Gaz thought was easy 7a but easier than the 7a+ (/6c+) that I did the other day. I hope you're less confused by that than me!

Gaz watching 'Hotline' beta on Vimeo

With our new 'Orange' technology we can now even watch beta on Vimeo while at the crag!

Gaz trying 'Hotline' at Petit Reine

Gaz has been trying a few hard classics while we've been here - Surplomb de la Mee, Hotline and Partage. As with me he hasn't bouldered properly for 3yrs so he's just enjoying flashing some easier problems at the mo and working the moves on the harder blocs. Hopefully he'll be able to give something hard a good go before we have to leave.

Bouldering in Fontainebleau

2012-04-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went out for a full days bouldering with the Positive Climbing gang to Franchard Isatis. Once again it was tons of fun and all the girls enjoyed climbing a whole bunch of reds which they were very proud of. They even admitted that they weren't sure they would enjoy bouldering but they all love it now! Even Ted joined in the fun...

Ted the Dog Bouldering in Fontainebleau from Epic-Adventures on Vimeo.
Here is Ted, our very cool dog, bouldering at Franchard Isatis in Fontainebleu! Gaz is spotting him.

I found a problem which I liked alot but couldn't do the top move. Soon after I realised how achey I was and was happy to settle for only half a days climbing. I'm aching even more today!

Kate Mills on 6c+ at Franchard Isatis, Fontainebleau from Epic-Adventures on Vimeo.
Annoyingly with my current strength I don't seem to be able to reach the rail at the top. Any suggestions?

After climbing we went to see a field in Larchant which we are going to rent until we get the horsebox repaired. It has a ramshackle feed room, 2 ramshackle stables and a well and the lady says we can camp until we have the van. I'm very excited!

Our new family home as of Saturday

A Classic Fontainebleau Problem...

2012-04-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

Today was a day of major highs and lows. We had a steady start and then went out bouldering to Vallee de la Mee - Potala to do an easy blue circuit. In usual Kate style a got bored of getting scared on high easy problems quite quickly and decided to move onto selected red problems. I was pleased to flash a cool little roof and found a really nice slopey 6c+ traverse to try with Cornellia.

I did well on it first go but hadn't looked at the end because I didn't expect to get there so fell off after getting a bit confused. I did the end using a very scarey full on foot jam that really doesn't come out! I had a couple more goes until I realised that I just needed a big rest before giving it a proper go.

I waited for Gaz to get back so he could give me a proper spot so I wouldn't break my leg in the crack and then I got a phone call about the van.... 2k!!!!! Well I had a little rant and then got on with giving my problem a go. Things once again didn't go to plan! Here is a little vid that you might find amusing...

Its Not a Jug! - A Fontainebleau Classic from Epic-Adventures on Vimeo.

Just so you know, the reason I randomly let go is because I wasn't on a jug and the next move involved putting a foot jam in the crack that doesn't come out while holding a not so nice slippy, slopey hold.

I think I'll give it another shot another day seen as we may be stranded in Font now that we seem to be vanless!

Gaz and Ted enjoying Font. Ted a little too much which is why the poff rag is strategically placed!

On a more positive note, we went on a 20km ride with the ponies in 2 hrs across some wonderful farm tracks and through sections of forest following one of the endurance trails. I love Fontainebleau and we're even going to see a piece of land for rent in Larchant tomorrow!

So far in Font...

2012-04-03T12:14:00.003-07:00

On Sunday afternoon after a good nights sleep in a very comfy bed (5 months sleeping on a van luton) I used my awesome new IGN map to ride and lead with Elsa and Arco to where the group were climbing at 95.2 sector. Thank goodness there were road names on all the tracks and sector numbers on the trees otherwise I would have definately been lost even with my map! The route was suprisingly varied considering Fontainebleau is a forest of sand tracks, at one point on the GR1 I had to get off Arco, put Elsa's reins around her neck and then lead Arco and hope Elsa followed up a very steep section where we actually had to climb up and through boulders! Anyway I managed to arrive at the bouldering in one piece and still with 2 horses without getting lost or having to re-route.

Arco, Elsa and Gaz at 95.2, Fontainebleau

Yesterday I took the horses for another nice short ride with Becky just to stretch their legs and get a bit more used to the sand. I told her how good Elsa is just as Elsa started to do her cool Spanish impression of mini rears, bunny hops and pawing while I attempted to do her feet because of some other lunatic French horses galloping round the field! Well Becky believed me that Elsa really is a good girl and discovered on the ride that she really is, she said that she'd never ridden a horse before where you don't have to use any leg or hand at all. I was really pleased because thats how I want my horses to go and it was nice for someone to notice the diference.

So all was good and lots of fun until I started the horsebox... it made a noise like a hedge strimmer which fizzled out into just smoke coming from underneath with a funny smell! Luckily we have Asda/ Britannia European breakdown cover who are now in the process of sorting everything out for us and have given us a handy little hire car. The van is now at the Renault garage waiting to find out how poorly he is, hopefully he'll get well soon.

Poorly Mister LT35 Horsebox

This evening I went for a little boulder at Cul de Chien with Gaz, Mike and Cornellia, lots of fun and only one getting down off a boulder trauma where Gaz had to come to my rescue. Not sure what we're going to do tomorrow because Gaz is tired after his three coaching days/ seven climbing days but we're planning to go for a ride with the horses on one of the 20km loops from the endurance comp at the weekend.

Part 3 The Never Ending Day

2012-04-01T02:49:00.004-07:00

On Friday we left the Ariege for a long journey to arrive in Fontainebleau at 10am on Saturday morning. We turned the horses out in a very nice field belonging to a livery yard in Ury where they had lots of fun cantering round for a while (not at all tired after their long journey!).

The ponies in their Fontainebleau field

Gaz and Ted made a donkey friend - now Gaz wants one!

The guy who owned the yard told us that there was an international endurance ride on in the forest over the weekend and the day before they had ridden past the field where the horses are. I was so excited and asked Gaz if he'd mind loosing out on a bit of climbing once again so that we could go and watch.

Once the horses were sorted and the dogs walked we went into the village of Ury to meet Gaz's friends who we are staying with for a week. His friend Mark owns Rockcity climbing wall in Hull and has a holiday home in Font which he is renovating. The house is beautiful and the work they have done so far, mainly DIY, is impressive!

Original beams and new solid oak staircase

So no sooner had we said Hi and dropped our stuff of we set of to find 'Le Grand Parquet' to watch the endurance. The whole stadium complex was seriously impressive with a beautiful cross country course, arenas and direct access into the forest for the endurance. I've never seen an endurance ride before never mind an international event. It was amazing to see the fitness of the horses competing over 90 and 120km and how the crews worked to cool the horses and reduce the heart rates for the vettings.

Coming into check point for cooling before vetting

Trotting up at vet gate

It was also fun looking round the very well equiped saddlery stalls, Gaz said I could buy a very good and detailed endurance book which I am now reading along with my many many barefoot articles! So after seeing such a big event Gaz has also decided that I shouldn't sell Elsa and that I should practice some endurance riding with her until Arco is a bit older so I can eventually do it properly with him and not accidently break him while he's still a baby! I'm going to enter the non-competive 20km with them both at Haywood Oaks, Nottingham with my mum riding Elsa as my first practice run. I'll let you know how that goes!

After the endurance we set off into the forest to Bas Cuvier for a climb. Mog was a bit traumatised by all the people with it being a weekend so she stayed in the van. Ted was keen and climbed his first boulder!

Ted reversing his first boulder problem in Font

We warmed up on what Gaz would call easy problems, I was pleased to flash a couple of things using pull-ups and campus moves on slabs (the feet are soooo much smaller than in the cave!) as well as doing a slappy, sloppy 6b after a few goes which Gaz thinks is quite hard. Gaz then went and did La Berazina and Carnage apparently much more quickly than last time he did them suggesting that the conditions are pretty good at the mo.

Then we went to the excessively busy and excessively huge Carrefour in Barbizon for some shopping and to buy an IGN map for the area (I have a serious map fetish and I shocked that I don't already have a font map!). Gaz also bought himself a ready made poff rag from Decathlon!

Ury with fields around, access to forest and lots of nice tracks!

After shopping we visited 'The House' in Tousson where the clients for this weeks 'Positive Climbing' course are staying with Adrian Berry. Everyone is fully psyched and today they are going out for there intro to Font, slabs and spotting at 95.2.

Today I'm planning on using my new cool map to ride and lead with Elsa and Arco over to 95.2 to meet up with Gaz and have a climb and then bring them back to Ury in the horsebox. Should be fun!

Ariege River Ride

2012-03-29T14:18:00.002-07:00

Today Anne said she would like to go riding so I thought it would be fun if we took the ponies in the river after their big ride yesterday. We rode along the side for a while and found a nice place to go in but Arco wasn't fancing it and Elsa was off on a random tangent in the opposite direction with Anne. So we pushed on until we came across a nice easy little stream to cross. I told Anne that Arco would probably jump it but Elsa would just walk through... Arco did jump it and when I turned round to check that Anne was ok i saw her leaping about 4 foot in the air over the stream on Elsa!

River practice

We went a bit further along the side of the river until it got a bit dangerous on slabs of limestone and then went back to where we originally wanted to go in. Arco re-thought the whole situation and decided to be a bit braver. He went straight in followed by Elsa who, as usual, proceeded to paw like crazy and launch water everywhere. Here is a little video clip of the mad woman...

Yet again because of all the horsey adventures poor old Gaz didn't get to go climbing until very late on. He warmed up and then tried to on-sight a very horizontal 8a, got a bit lost, including trying to go to the wrong belay! Then he red-pointed it and we had a go at filming it on my Samsung Galaxy S2 which turned out great. He'll be posting the vid soon on his blog.

Part 2 Ariege

2012-03-29T03:45:00.003-07:00

On Monday we collected the horses from Santa Linya and brought them back to the field so we could spend the day organising all of our stuff for the UK. Elsa was plastered in the worst mud I have ever seen on a pony and it has taken me 3 days to brush it all off her even after I resorted to using a wire brush on her! Organising the van took a little bit longer than expected too, we were still busy sorting through an excessive amount of junk on Tuesday morning.

So on Tuesday afternoon we set off with Elsa, Arco, Ted and Mog to the Ariege. The journey was very nice and pretty easy and we passed lots and lots of horses throughout the Spanish Pyrenees. We arrived at 'Chez Arran' in the early evening to stay with our friends, John and Anne Arran again. They've been doing lots of work on their new appartment so we might be lending a hand with some DIY while we're here.

Zen cat welcomes us to his home

The horses had the day off on Tuesday and then yesterday we went on an amazing ride up to an old abandoned church at 1000m altitude. Both of them are pretty fit but they did go on strike quite a few times up the steep rocky path and were very puffed and sweaty, Gaz and I were very glad we were getting a lift by the horses rather than having to walk up ourselves!

Arco says "Oh No! 1000m sounds very high, don't you know I'm not a climbing horse?"

When we reached the top we discovered that it was well worth it and elsa agreed when she got to have a good roll and then munch on some very nice grass!

On arrival at the plateau

Elsa enjoys rolling!

Me and my beautiful horse admiring the beautiful view

The horses were amazing on their barefeet on the rocks up to the plateau and I doubt they could even have made it up the limestone if they were wearing shoes. Even so we were happy to enter a lovely forest with leafy tracks for the steep journey back down!


At times we felt like we were on a tabogon run on horseback!

When we arrived back the horses were just as jolly as when we set off but Gaz and I were pretty knackered! So obviously we then went out climbing! We went to a lovely place that we've actually been to before called Genat. Ted had fund rounding up some cows and Gaz had fun flashing an 8a with no chalk on. After we went out for pizza in Tarascon and found it extremely strange that, unlike Spanish towns, French towns are deserted in the evenings and no one is serving food!

Costa Blanca to UK - Part 1

2012-03-26T14:07:00.003-07:00

So we have started our journey back to the UK, after dropping off 2 of the horses in the Costa Blanca we are back in Catalunya collecting the other 2.

The cats are happily settled with Lars and Petra and their new doggy friend Oscar back af the house. Joseph and Oliana are happy in Paddock Paradise with Dawn looking after them well. I can't wait to see their feet in a few weeks after they have been living out on 100,000m2 of land!

Workaway Welcome

2012-03-17T10:16:00.003-07:00

A BIG WELCOME to our new workawayers!

Lars and Petra arrived in Cubells last night on their way to look after our Costa Blanca house and cats for the summer. They are just out taking some pics of the countryside right now which I'm going to post later. Earlier today they had fun picking some almonds and frying them but they had to share them with Oliana who thought they looked really interesting and wanted to help with the cooking.


Oli the Wally checking out fried almonds

I discovered www.workaway.info when we first moved to the house and had many interesting people come and stay to help us with jobs. Every experience was lots of fun and I think both parties always got something out of the setup. If I didn't have so many animals I'd be totally psyched to go on a few workaway placements myself and I recommend to anyone no matter your age or lifestyle to check it out.

The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society

2012-03-14T12:57:00.002-07:00

At the moment Spain looks just like a picture postcard image, beautiful almond blossom everywhere that I feel the need to comment on every five minutes... "Just look at how beautiful it is!"... I think I might be driving Gaz round the bend. Then I remembered a book I read a long time ago - The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society by Chris Stewart. There are another two books in the series - Driving Over Lemons and A Parrot in the Pepper Tree.

Driving Over Lemons is the book that originally made me want to live in Spain, I read the book and wanted to move there right away! The book is wonderful and gives a great insight into the realities of living on a Finca in Spain, both the good and the bad. I think Chris maybe has a little bit more time on his hands than Gaz and I do because he seems to get up to a heck of alot more random stuff than us and possibly a bit more money!

Anyone who is thinking of moving to Spain should definately read all three books alongside one of the 'Buying a property in Spain' books for a little inspiration. Thinking about it now I'm sure I'm going to read them all again!

NEW PODENCO RESCUE PAGE by Morgana

2012-03-03T09:09:00.002-08:00

My name is Morgana and I am a Podenco (even though I look like a wolf!). I am 9yrs old and I came to live with Kate and Gaz last year when their beautiful little Podenco Sandi died. I'm so glad they rushed straight out to the nearest rescue centre to look for another little doggy with sticking up ears! I had lived in the kennels for 8yrs since I was 3 months old and was absolutely terrified of everything, I was basically wild.

Well now I am not wild at all, although I do like to randomly bark at people. I like to wear a nice little fleece coat at night and my favourite place is a comfy sofa. Although when I am outside I like to run around like a maniac I am very happy just to snooze the rest of the time.

The reason I am speaking to you is that their are many other doggies like me in the kennels in Spain. We are bred as hunting dogs and often get lost and our owners never come to rescue us. Many people think that the rescue centres here shouldn't keep dogs like me for so long but if they hadn't I wouldn't have the wonderful life I have now, infact I would have never had any life whatsoever.

If you would like to have one of the best doggy friends in the world please contact Kate and Gaz and they will help you look for a doggy like me. Sandi was their bestest doggy in the whole wide world and she was a Podenco and now I am their new bestest doggy (no offence Ted!)

Hope to see you in Spain one day when you come to find your own Podenco!

Mog

Catch 22 - Time V Money?

2012-03-03T08:00:00.003-08:00

I think this is the same old story for everyone and the same question that everyone tries to weigh up, very few people getting the right balance. Gaz and I (mainly I) have now been on pretty much a three year holiday in Spain with poor old Gaz returning to England on a monthly basis to work. Right now I feel I ought to contribute seen as the poor guy not only has to keep me but my horses as well!

Munching on grass!

So after a long time debating (and I mean a longggg time) we have decided to spend the summer in the UK so I can contribute towards our funds. I'm just trawling the internet searching for a nice natural livery place for Joe and Oliana to have a little holiday. Arco and Elsa are coming to the UK to have some endurance/ jumping fun and hopefully for Elsa to find a nice new home.

We will be travelling back to the UK in March/ April via the Ariege and Fontainbleau where Gaz is coaching with Positive Climbing. I believe there is still one place left on the course due to an injury so anyone interested please contact Adrian Berry.

My biggest piece of news is that I have just enrolled for the Equine Sciences Academy Hoof Care Certification course. My intention is that with as much learning as possible I will not only be able to trim my own horse's feet but I will be able to trim professionally as well. I think there is potentially a big demand for barefoot trimming/ natural hoofcare in Spain and qualified trimmers in Spain are rare. I will keep you posted with how I am progressing with the course.

The Soul of a Horse, Kindle App and Awesome Phone!

2012-02-29T04:01:00.006-08:00

I have just discovered a whole new world of Android phones. I´ve never had an ´all singing, all dancing´ phone before (mainly because I didn´t think any of them were) but since being off grid I decided to look for a phone that maybe could do everything so that I didn´t need to carry every gadget around with me (and charge them all). So eventually found the Samsung Galaxy S2 and decided to take the plunge into the world of technology.

I got this phone on contract with o2 because they do a great deal called ´My Europe Extra - Spain´ (they also do ´My Europe Extra´ which covers most of the rest of Europe) for 5GBP per month with which you can receive calls for free in Spain. This means anyone can call me on my normal English mobile using their normal minutes and it doesn´t cost me either.

So with my new awesome phone (not so new now) I have an mp3 player, can watch films, can store anything useful I like, can take pretty damn good photos and videos and can go anywhere with my Sygic navigation app. And now I have a Kindle app too! So with my first obsession being barefoot trimming and my second obsession being books I now have lots of PDF downloads about horses hooves and a few new kindle books! It really is so easy to use and read the books and the phone is perfect to hold in my hand.

The book I have just finished reading is ´The Soul of the Horse´ by Joe Camp. He has a blog you can visit http://thesoulofahorse.com/blog/ to read all about him. Even though I have had my own horses for 29yrs and Joe has only had them for two I found it very interesting to learn things the way he learnt them in such a short time.

No matter how someone tells you a horse should be treated we can all take our own slightly scewed slant on each method but I think the key is that we try to learn as much as we can to improve the lives of our horses. I think that is the point of Joe´s book. I´m sure we´d all love to live in an ideal world of horse-keeping but the fact is that for most people thats impossible due to many factors including, space, time and money.

Joe´s book actually shows that you can still do the best for your horses with what you have by keeping his on 1.5 acres. Now you might think ´well have less horses´ but maybe these horses were still better off with Joe than in their original lives. How many people do you know who actually keep one horse per acre or two?

I have worked in many versions of the horsey world and the one thing that all (and I do mean all) that these places has in common was that they always put the success of their business before their horses. Keeping horses well definately isn´t about how pretty they look, how clean they are or how well they perform, it really is about how happy they are - in my opinion. I have 4 horses on land that is perhaps is the perfect place for 2 but then what would the place be like where my other 2 horses went to live? Probably not as good as where my four live now. So although perhaps 2 of my horses are for sale I won´t sell them unless they go to somewhere that their lives will be the same as they are now or better.

Sorry to babble so long, I definately could babble for longer when it comes to horses! I´m sure if you take to reading this blog whether to read about horses or read about off-grid you will end up reading alot about both as you try to skim read through my babble to get to the relevant part! As Gaz would say ´the condensed version please Kate´.

So until my next babble

Kate

Welcome

2012-02-24T13:27:00.003-08:00

Anyone who has visited the Epic blog before will notice that something strange has happened... I realised that Gaz and I may have some interesting experiences to share about our off-grid/ horse-riding/ rock-climbing life! And so the Epic blog has had a fresh start.

Right at this moment Gaz is busy working in the UK and I am making use of the free wifi service at a local bar, currently our prefered method of internet access while living in a van. We tried internet dongles which work if you can cope with the speed and I'm now researching into satelite internet (I'll let you know how that works out).

Horses chillaxing naturally

We are currently living in a horsebox/ campervan on our field and building a feedroom/ tackroom/ wooden house out of recycled pallets. We have four horses who I am trying to keep as naturally as possible along with two dogs (who pretty much do what they want) and two cats who sleep on the luton with us.