Once Upon a Time...

...we had sun, and beautiful colors.

And I took a wonderful trail ride with my daughter.

Now everything is dark, wet and grey.

It is just a month ago, but right now it feels like ages.

Why don't you join us for the ride?

I apologize for the quality of some of the pictures. My cellphone was not quite cooperative that day.

After crossing the creek and some fields, we are taking a gravel road leading further up into the forest.

We are so lucky to have some houses serving food in the forest.

Norwegians are very fond of using their spare time for walking and bicycling in summer, and skiing in winter, so there is a market. the people who live there have part of their income serving food, mainly in the weekends.

We go horse riding, much more fun!

We have packed up food for the horses too.

After about three-quarters of an hour, we leave the gravel roads for a path through the forest.

I just love the way the sun is filtering through the trees.

A bit of the path is quite stony, with bare mountain sides.

We meet some people with bicycles.

I don't like to ride on bare mountain sides with a shod horse, the horse easily slides.
Most of the path is OK though.

Below you see one of the most popular places to stop and have a rest, and something to eat.

It is called Kobberhaugshytta (Copper Hill Cottage).

You can also spend the night there.

We are moving on to a less frequented place.

Calmer surroundings makes it easier to relax with the horses.

Below: We are closing in on the way up to our destination, Finnerud.

Fame has been here before, and is looking up to the houses.

Feed Place is in there, Mum! See??

Here we are, this is Finnerud.

They used to have a "parking place" for horses , but a horse ran off with the tree trunk to which you tied them and unfortunately it was never replaced.

But we don't mind, we have a special corner, with some trees and our own table in the sun!

They have the very best ciabatta, carrot cake and waffles.

I was very disappointed as they were out of my favourite, the carrot cake.

But the waffles were not bad either!

Charlie can't find his pellets on the ground in between all the leaves, and is getting impatient.

(read: being a nuisance. Have you seen a horse get entangled in a tree? Well, he did his best)

My daughter has to help him relocate his food.

He has it well hidden under the leaves after trodding around and scraping up leaves with his hooves, stupid.

My princess Fame is behaving well as always (hahem) and is calmly looking at the surroundings.

She has hoovered the ground free from food.

Been here, done that.

Charlie suddenly gets a visitor.

He stops being Very Bored (expressed by un-relaxing exercises in different postures), and checks out what's happening.

The entertainment climbs up a tree.

I am waiting for an explosion from a "frightened" horse.

As food now is scarce for both two- and fourlegs, we decide to get on our way home.

When coming home, we had been out and about for around three hours.

Horses were happy, we were happy.

A wonderful ride.

Thanks for accompanying us!

Autumn joy

My daughter has taken the photo above.

I think it is such a beautiful autumn picture; the clear azure-blue sky, and the yellow leaves.

It is so beautiful outside now, and we have had some sunny days.

The temperature has dropped though.

On my trail ride last Saturday I rode in a t-shirt. Now, I have had to find my chaps and thick jackets.

After two days of intensive dressage traning, I took Fame out on a relaxing ride today in the beautiful weather.

Tomorrow the weather forecast says sleet, so we better take advantage of the nice weather while it lasts.

The disadvantage with many horses around is that the soil is washed away, and the stones creep up.

Fairytale forest, don't you think?

(Cabruze - no bugs, just moose!)

Calm and low water in the creek.

But on Wednesday and Thursday we worked hard!

Jimmi, the Danish trainer is here again.

On Wednesday he scolded us as he found Fame tight in the topline.

That is something that I always have to watch with her. She likes to work in a too high form which renders her tight in the back if "left alone".

I am aware of it, and work a lot with supplying exercises, keeping her in a low and round form.

But we had not done enough apparently!

He helped us through it, also riding Fame for a short while.
At the end of the lesson, she was much better.

She has been a bit more "antelope-y" lately though, I thought about it when hacking out today.

As I was riding bareback it was extra obvious...
I might have to adjust on her hard feed.
It is nice to have some energy, but if the energy is directed into spooking for about all and everything and getting tense instead of working, maybe the octane level is too high.

I will set her down a bit on the pellets and see what happens.

When we started out day two she was much better right from the start.

We continued with supplying exercises, and Fame felt good in the contact and with an improved hind leg activity. The trot in particular felt better than normal, and I was happy with the work.

Jimmi is a good trainer.

The things he comments on always feels right, and I feel Fame is working better.

The trainer can say nice things, deserved or not, but the horse never lies.

Now I am looking forward to two more lessons during the weekend.

It is very nice to get such an intensive training once he is here, as it will be a month or more until he returns.

My daughter also had a lesson this morning.

I had to act as translator as she has problem to understand Danish.

In the afternoon Siri and Hjalmar also had sessions.

And Jimmi was so lucky as to ride on a quality horse!

Beautiful autumn ride

Fame and I had a beautiful trail ride today.

It was a sunny, clear day, autumn at its best!

The sky was turquise blue, and it was warm; 19-20 centigrades.

Why don't you join us?

We cross the road and take the path leading into the (ex)forest on the other side.

Oops.

Just a short distance down the path is blocked.

Great to have a 4x4!

My vehicle was a bit surprised about what was lying in our way as it wasn't there last time we were there.

She agreed with me that it was better to go around than to climb over it.

It was a bit tricky as there were a lot of branches lying around from the trees that had been cut down, but we made it through.

Good girl, Fame!

After riding through a short stretch of forest, we get out in the open for a while with a field of oats on our left, and then into a smaller forest section that stretches down towards the creek.

This is a favourite spot for the moose in winter time.

Lots of bushes to eat, and water nearby. Due to the current the creek often stays open even at winter time.

Coast is clear.

No moose.
The path winds alongside the creek, which is on our right.

Fame is looking out over the field on our right hand side.

One has to be On Watch.

We are to cross the creek where you see the end of the path in the photo below .

As we have had dry and sunny weather lately, the water level is low now.

Easy to cross.

I can feel that Fame wants to wander about some, but today we just ride over.

She can linger on our way home when she is warm instead if she wants to.

Reaching the other side, we continue on the path running there.

We trot a bit first, then canter.

Two pigeons fly up right in front of us, and suddenly we are at a dead stop two metres aside from where we were a split second ago.

Let's just say I am happy I did not ride bareback today!

After another 10-15 minutes ride, we come to our "destination".
If you look at the picture of our "new view" in the post below from yesterday, you can see a large mountain in the right side of the picture.

The road where we are to ride today winds up on the side of that mountain.
It is a lovely ride as you ride in the sunshine and get a marvellous view over the valley as you climb.

And it is super fitness work for the horses too!

So, here we go! A trot?

Unfortunately the picture below is not sharp (might have something to do with an impatient horse) but the bright red rowan berries were such a beautiful contrast to the dark green of the spruce.

Are you ready for a canter?

It does look inviting, doesn't it?

Yieehaaa!

Climbing upwards, the slope at the side down towards the valley gets quite steep.

You don't want your horse to do something stupid.

It's a long way down.

And on the other side there are rocks.

We are looking downwards here, walking for a bit before starting next canter interval.

Climbing upwards, the view is really beautiful.

Unfortunately the trees have grown here too.

If you look at the photo below you might see the same creek as we crossed a while ago within the red circle far, far down below us .

(Sorry, photos from the cellphone are not the best. I could see it clearly in reality though.)

After a while, we stop and turn back.

I jump off Fame, loosen her girth and let her have some grass.

She has done a good job, she is sweat and slightly blowing.

We walk down all the way, with the occasional stop to have some grass.

All the way up the peace was unfortunately disturbed by heavy shooting from a shooting range below.

The hunting season on moose starts soon, and that is the highlight of the year for many.

I suppose we should be grateful that they practise...

Fame behaved very well. After flinching at the first shots, she just ignored the rest.

I just love when the sun filters through the spruce trees.

It gives me a fairytale feeling.

In a mossy hillside, we hear a sound in the fern.

What can it be?

A small animal?

Yes, it was.

An adder.

He was trying to hide as well as he could, and when I got nosy he finds out it was better to leave.

Quick.

Then the battery in my cell phone went flat, so no more photos unfortunately...

We had an uneventful ride home.

Fame was relaxed but stretching out nicely in the walk.

I love the sense of combined smoothness and strength.

When we got home Fame got her shower and I let her out with her hay.

She was happy, and so was I.

When I got home my hunting husband had returned from the forest too.

He is a very good berries-and-mushrooms hunter.

Look at his catch!

Chantarelles!

A whole bag full.

We are gonna have a Very Nice Dinner tonight!

Thanks for keeping us company!