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Mini-holiday
Mike's off work for the next week (and actually off work, not just free-in-working-hours-but-otherwise-on-call), so we've taken the opportunity to get away from London for a few days, even if I couldn't make him leave his laptop behind....
Yesterday, we went to see GB. Mike had a ride, much to GB's irritation: the tail was swishing away like mad the whole time, but he did eventually start working well, which was good. Mike has a jumping lesson on him on Tuesday, so it seemed sensible for the to have half an hour in the school together beforehand.
Afterwards, we headed out to Gatwick, where we went to see a lady with a company called Safe Cobs and we each had a ride on Jonny, who isn't yet on their website but can be seen at the start of this video: he's a typical just-off-the-ferry, but he's got very good manners and they seem to be quite good about giving the horses basic schooling (stood beautifully to be mounted) and also about matching the horses to the riders. Unfortunately, they don't have a sand school and the rain meant the paddock they use for schooling was off-limits, so we each had a short hack on him. We're going to go back on Wednesday and try him out in a nearby sand school, but if he's reasonable in there then I think we'll get him. She's very much focussed on bringing horses on to be safe hacks, but she does do some schooling with them as well, so I'm reasonably hopeful.
It started raining as we were riding, and proceeded to pour for the rest of the day. That meant we didn't have the planned zoo visit, so no otters, kune kune, foxes or penguins, and instead we bimbled around in the car hoping for a gap in the showers to coincide with a Thing To See. This didn't really happen, so we ended up in Eastbourne earlier than planned and relaxed in the hotel instead. We were staying in the Commie hotel, which spends most of the time as a Unite conference centre. Their commie free biscuits were remarkably stingy, but they did have a very cheap bar. It was a nice big room, too.
Dinner was in an Indian place called Imli, which wasn't anything to do with Imli in London but was a definite step up from a bog standard curry place. Afterwards, I learnt just how uncomfortable commie pillows were, and my back is still objecting even after twenty minutes of Pilates exercises on the floor of the current hotel.
Today, we went to see another horse, not far from Eastbourne. Well, actually, we sort-of saw two of them: while Mike was putting on his riding boots, I was saying hello to the horse we'd arranged to see and, in a spirit of enquiry, I went to pick up his front foot. There was a wooshing noise and something brushed against my hair. "Something" being his back foot. Well, ok, benefit of the doubt: I tried it again, more cautiously. Same thing. And again, with the owner holding his head. Ditto. "I don't think we'll be taking this one," I told her, to mutual lack of surprise. Instead, we looked at another of her horses. Nice enough, and rode nicely, but wasn't as nice as the one we tried yesterday (assuming that he's ok in the school).
The weather today was much nicer, and after the horses we went down to Dungeness, where we had a little walk in the bird reserve and I boggled at the idea that anyone could choose to live there. After lunch, we went up to Wye (by which time the coats stayed in the car) and then pootled around the area where the house is (including a surprisingly interesting tour of a windmill).
We're now in tonight's hotel, which is inside the Cathedral grounds ("If you come in after 9pm, you'll need to show them your room key at the gate") and spends most of its time as a Church conference centre. The room is smaller, but it's a much more beautiful building and the grounds are lovely. Plus, it's sunny here. And the biscuits are better. I reserve judgement on the pillows until tomorrow.
Dinner was at (second choice: first choice was full but we've booked for tomorrow) the somewhat strangely names Cafe des Amis, which is actually a Mexican place that gave us a discount with our hotel room key. The food was lovely, as was the service on the rare occasions when it happened. I think that they were just short-staffed, but I wasn't terribly impressed at the number of times we ended up sitting at our table staring mournfully at the serving hatch / bar trying to catch the waitress's eye.
Yesterday, we went to see GB. Mike had a ride, much to GB's irritation: the tail was swishing away like mad the whole time, but he did eventually start working well, which was good. Mike has a jumping lesson on him on Tuesday, so it seemed sensible for the to have half an hour in the school together beforehand.
Afterwards, we headed out to Gatwick, where we went to see a lady with a company called Safe Cobs and we each had a ride on Jonny, who isn't yet on their website but can be seen at the start of this video: he's a typical just-off-the-ferry, but he's got very good manners and they seem to be quite good about giving the horses basic schooling (stood beautifully to be mounted) and also about matching the horses to the riders. Unfortunately, they don't have a sand school and the rain meant the paddock they use for schooling was off-limits, so we each had a short hack on him. We're going to go back on Wednesday and try him out in a nearby sand school, but if he's reasonable in there then I think we'll get him. She's very much focussed on bringing horses on to be safe hacks, but she does do some schooling with them as well, so I'm reasonably hopeful.
It started raining as we were riding, and proceeded to pour for the rest of the day. That meant we didn't have the planned zoo visit, so no otters, kune kune, foxes or penguins, and instead we bimbled around in the car hoping for a gap in the showers to coincide with a Thing To See. This didn't really happen, so we ended up in Eastbourne earlier than planned and relaxed in the hotel instead. We were staying in the Commie hotel, which spends most of the time as a Unite conference centre. Their commie free biscuits were remarkably stingy, but they did have a very cheap bar. It was a nice big room, too.
Dinner was in an Indian place called Imli, which wasn't anything to do with Imli in London but was a definite step up from a bog standard curry place. Afterwards, I learnt just how uncomfortable commie pillows were, and my back is still objecting even after twenty minutes of Pilates exercises on the floor of the current hotel.
Today, we went to see another horse, not far from Eastbourne. Well, actually, we sort-of saw two of them: while Mike was putting on his riding boots, I was saying hello to the horse we'd arranged to see and, in a spirit of enquiry, I went to pick up his front foot. There was a wooshing noise and something brushed against my hair. "Something" being his back foot. Well, ok, benefit of the doubt: I tried it again, more cautiously. Same thing. And again, with the owner holding his head. Ditto. "I don't think we'll be taking this one," I told her, to mutual lack of surprise. Instead, we looked at another of her horses. Nice enough, and rode nicely, but wasn't as nice as the one we tried yesterday (assuming that he's ok in the school).
The weather today was much nicer, and after the horses we went down to Dungeness, where we had a little walk in the bird reserve and I boggled at the idea that anyone could choose to live there. After lunch, we went up to Wye (by which time the coats stayed in the car) and then pootled around the area where the house is (including a surprisingly interesting tour of a windmill).
We're now in tonight's hotel, which is inside the Cathedral grounds ("If you come in after 9pm, you'll need to show them your room key at the gate") and spends most of its time as a Church conference centre. The room is smaller, but it's a much more beautiful building and the grounds are lovely. Plus, it's sunny here. And the biscuits are better. I reserve judgement on the pillows until tomorrow.
Dinner was at (second choice: first choice was full but we've booked for tomorrow) the somewhat strangely names Cafe des Amis, which is actually a Mexican place that gave us a discount with our hotel room key. The food was lovely, as was the service on the rare occasions when it happened. I think that they were just short-staffed, but I wasn't terribly impressed at the number of times we ended up sitting at our table staring mournfully at the serving hatch / bar trying to catch the waitress's eye.