Virtual trail ride - riding the horses home

Kate at A year with horses had a virtual trail ride as a post a while ago.

Such a good idea, so here I invite you to come along as we ride our horses home from summer pasture!

This is the farm where the horses have been during the summer. It is further into the valley where we live, about a 10 min drive from home.

In the wood surrounding the farm there are sheep grazing during summer.

Today they were on a visit.

On the farm lays what most probably is one of the oldest houses in the valley.
It dates back to the 17th century.

So who is participating?

My daughter with her horse Charlie.

My horse Fame and me.

First we must get the gear and the saddles.
My daughter is on her way into the stable to get hers.

There we are!

I wouldn't say the tack is neatly stacked, but it is on place!

Now we can get the horses.

The horses were faaaar away.

We tried calling.

Helloooooo, where are you?

Charlie? Fame?

And guess who's coming? Full speed ahead. Sweethearts!

Fame tries to get first.

Competing with a (harnessed) race horse that has grown up in this terrain is not easy, but she managed in the end!

Charlie comes third!

The rest of the guys are trailing after.

What's the fuzz about?

On with halters, and up to the farm to tack up.

And off we go.

I usually start out/finish by leading Fame so she can get warmed up and cooled down without any weight on the back.

Futher down the neighbour is fetching his horses too.

Time to work!

Not easy to get clear pictures while on horse-back!

We turn off the gravel road into a path...

...and after some minutes we get out on the main road leading through the valley.

Here we have busses....

...and bikers, and also people on roller skis. But that's OK.

The really scary stuff is:

....water drains!

All houses are red!

Fame and Charlie really like photography stops.

Feed time!

(they haven't had ANY grass this summer. Hmmm.)

We have to watch out!

Mooses are everywhere!

And we have to keep the speed limit...

Now we are approaching the crossroad, where the shop, the school and the church is.

This is our shop. It is also a small café. Nice place to meet your horsey friends.

They even have a parking place for horses - isn't that nice!

Here is the school.

It is Oslo's smallest school, just around 80 pupils in total.

My daughter went here from 1st to 7th grade.

Here is our neighbor stable, and their indoor arena where we have some access during winter time.

Now we are getting close to home.

The little red brick house is called "The Bath".

In the old days, when people had no bathing facilities at home, they came here.

There were also quite a lot of men living and working in the forest with timber, who definetely needed a bath before returning to civilization.....

Now my friend Berith is living there. She is running the neighbor stable.

Passing the last bridge before we come home.

Heavy rainfall has resulted in much water everywhere.

Normally we would have used a path from the school to the stables, but it is so muddy everywhere, so the road is better.

Almost at home we meet Siri on Zan-Day from our stable.

Fame is very interested.

Hello, where have you been all summer? Done something interesting?

The stables are in the background, where the road makes a turn.

Home!

Taking up the stirrups before entering...

And finally...

FOOD, yeaahh!

Thanks for accompanying us!