Tails From Provence

The First Ballade

Saturday morning, LSH is not working, it’s time for our very first French Hack!!

I rode Flurry yesterday (just to make sure he’d behave for the LSH) and I’ve been walking both horses in hand and doing a little lunge each day, partly to get us all into a routine and partly to help them loosen out after the journey.

Flurry went barefoot, but Aero wore his Renegade boots. There’s good news and bad news there – the good news is that his left front has spread a bit more, so it’s almost the same size as the right one, but the bad news is that I now have two size 2 boots too many and one size 2W boot too few. It’s time for some more online shopping, unfortunately.

Fitting Aero’s Renegades

The LSH brought his new Little Camera – it’s a Sony RX100, which he bought so he’d be able to satisfy his photographic urges on horseback. The first test was whether Flurry would stand still….

Just sit there, LSH, I want to look at this for a minute

Well of course he would! This is the horse that loves to admire spectacular views! Although it was very hazy today, so the views weren’t up to the usual standard, but he stood quietly anyway while the LHS took a few like this :

Aero doesn’t get this whole “scenery” thing, he was more interested in grazing. I was happy to let him have a nibble though, it showed me how much more relaxed he is now.

Why are we standing here?

The next test for the Sony RX100 was how would its panorama mode function on a moving horse :

Half a panorama!

Well, it functioned, but I don’t think the black bit on the Right hand side should be there!

I took my first official Through the Ears shot on Aero :

although I only had my iPhone, I can’t find the strap I used to use to tie the camera case onto the saddle and I didn’t want to squish my camera into the small pockets on my gilet.

Still, the iPhone photos aren’t too bad…

…pity I chopped Flurry’s head off though!

I took a photo of him, he took a photo of me…

…all we need now is someone to take a photo of the two of us as we ride along holding hands, like this :

©The Long Riders’ Guild Press

(shall I pass the barf bags?)

The hack was completely uneventful – a forty-five minute stroll through lavender fields and woods, with about five minutes on the road at the end. Flurry sweated up a lot – it was 20C, hotter than we experienced all summer in Cork, I think! I will have to get the clippers out and give him a very light clip, he’ll have plenty of time to grow more hair between now and January/February when the cold weather usually hits.

The local horse people collect stale baguettes to give to their horses as treats. Flurry remembers this well from last year and was delighted to see a demi-baguette heading his way. He kindly showed Aero what to do with it.

Look, Aero, this is what you do

Aero thought it was a great idea!

What – you mean like this?

He loved it, and didn’t pull any faces like Flurry did last year!

I asked the LSH to take a photo of me and both the Boyz – up to now, there haven’t been any in existence, and I want one for my Facebook page. This is my favourite :

Shades of Desert Orchid and Red Rum!

But this is probably the one I’ll use, where they are not trying to hide me :

La Foire Agricole

Since we got here, we’ve been seeing signs proclaiming “Foire Agricole à Reillanne, 14 Oct” (Agricultural Fair in Reillanne). Something like a harvest festival, we surmised. Keen to experience local culture in all its forms, we resolved to drop into the Foire for a few hours on Sunday morning, before setting off to collect the horses.

A Harvest Festival in Ireland is typically a Protestant tradition, although in some towns, the local Catholic church will get involved, too, giving it an ecumenical, although still religious, flavour. There’ll be a few prayers said at the official opening, giving thanks for the Harvest, then it’s time to hit the stalls – cakes and preserves made by the ladies of the Parish, various games of chance, lucky dips and bric-a-brac – then you finish up having a nice cup of tea (but usually not Barrys!!) and a sandwich at the tea-stall. Funds are typically being raised for the Parish coffers, the school, maybe, or the church roof, or sometimes for a worthy local charity. All in all, it’s not terribly different to what you might see on The Vicar of Dibley.

I can categorically say that the Foire Agricole in Reillanne was nothing like that. The first thing that caught our eye was a vast array of benches and trestle tables, all covered with snow-white tablecloths. Lunch was clearly on the agenda.

There were plenty of Provençal costumes around too. Some of them were “staff” who were helping to set up the food tables, but there were plenty more who just dressed up for the fun of it.

No Fair or Foire is complete without Face-painting for the kiddies and this one was no exception.

I’m not sure that little person really wanted her face painted!

There were all the usual Provencal style food stands – goats cheese, artisanal bread, cakes and some more exotic fare, too.

Squashes – not really exotic, but SO colourful!

Escargots – snails!

Sad to say, I think the cage of rabbits belongs in the food section. While doing Le Big Trek, Anne and I passed a farm with cages and cages of rabbits at one side, just like these. Yum.

As well as food, though, there were lots of stalls which gave a little taste of Provençal traditions.

A stand selling painted and unpainted Santons. These terracotta figurines were traditionally made to be part of a Nativity scene, giving their Christmas nativity displays a very Provençal flavour. Now, they are mostly made to sell to tourists, but they’re still pretty cute!

L’atelier de mon Père. This was a steam-driven model workshop, complete with accordian music (on an incongruous CD player), steam whistle and French flag.

There were potters, lavender producers and basket weavers

and a large tent, full of blacksmiths (both male and female) working on red-hot metal.

These guys weren’t farriers, they were making all sorts of funky metal things, curtain poles, stools, tables etc. There was a guy further on doing a horse-shoeing display as well.

There were pens of animals, complete with labels identifying whose farm they came from.

I was fascinated with a large pen of mixed poultry. Our good neighbours, Frank and Margo, who looked after Aero & Flurry for the last two weeks, would have loved this – they’ve got some fairly interesting poultry themselves.

Handsome geese :

A less handsome turkey :

A very cuddly bantam :

A pair of ducks who seem to be wearing Doris Day wigs :

I think this very large (meaty? sorry Thumper!) rabbit was teasing the drake about his hair-do :

In the middle of the Foire, there was a large fenced off area, which was used for displays. When we arrived, a rather unfortunate man was trying to demonstrate the abilities of his truffle-hunting dog, a gorgeous hairy creature, who looked just like Benjy. “Benjy” was having none of it, however, and was much more interested in eating the horse poop which was scattered around the place, so they left the arena without locating any of the hidden truffles.

After Benjy, there was a demonstration with a grey mare, a Mareyeur Boulonnais, a breed of heavy horse reknown for its rôle in transporting fish from the ports of Normandy to Paris. This mare, though, was trained for forestry, and the commentator made sure we all knew that she and her handler were available for work, should we need any trees felled and hauled.

The Forestier drove the mare around the arena, stopping, starting, circling and turning.

Then he left the arena. Ho-hum, I thought, that was a bit tame. However, he quickly attached the mare to a large log and returned, and went through the same movements. I’ve never seen a horse hauling a dead weight like this before, and I was interested to see that it was all very fast – in my head, I had imagined a slow steady pull, but this pair worked in jerky, rapid movements. Perhaps that’s necessary to break the inertia of the log and get it moving?

There were loads of horses around the place, in fact the Foire had a very equine flavour altogether. Loads of local horsey people just turned up for a day out with their horses, riding casually through the crowds and the stands to the pens and picket lines at the back, where they left their horses while they wandered off to see the sights. There were few helmets in evidence and fewer still Safety Officers, in fact, make that “a few” helmets and “no” Safety Officers! Still, most of the horses took it all in their stride, as if they do this sort of thing every week, and maybe they do.

After the Forestier, a few young horses were introduced. Their owners were hoping to find a buyer in Reillanne – an unlikely outcome, to be honest. This colourful chap was trying to sell a couple of mules :

This grey yearling almost demolished the fence and then made a good attempt at getting away from his owner – just after the owner had finished telling the world how docile he is! Animals will always let you down at the wrong moment – just as the “Benjy” dog had done earlier!

After the sales pitch, a familiar face entered the arena – Alexandrine d’Arnaud did a demonstration with a “cheval récalcitrant” – no translation necessary, I think!

Alexandrine follows the “natural” horse training method. This was my first time seeing her working with a horse and I was happy to see her patient, gentle but insistent approach. Her ultimate goal was to load the grey mare into a trailer, and she built up to it by asking the horse to walk through or over an assortment of objects first.

This was all very easy, but unfortunately when she asked the mare to walk into the trailer, the mare said “What? NO!” several times. We had to leave before the end of the demo, but she told me the next day that the mare did go in…. eventually.

There were more and more colourful Provençal costumes in evidence as we left and still more on the approach road to the Foire.

Some people were carrying instruments – I guess there was music planned for later in the day.

We would have loved to have stayed on and had lunch sitting at the trestle tables in the sun, while a local band played traditional music, but unfortunately we had to go.

Maybe next year.

Morning

First thing this morning I went up to see the Boyz.

Aero was very, very needy.

Flurry discreetly kept his distance. Like I said, Aero has been bullying him – he’s missing a few chunks of fur – and he is very wary of him.

As far as Aero was concerned, it’s all about “MeMeMe!” and poor Flurry wasn’t allowed near me. (Sorry about the snot!)

Having reassured myself that they were ok, I took the Hyper terriers for a walk.

This place is as perfect as can be. A track from the farm leads through a lavender field onto a GR trail which runs east/west – east leads to the Forêt Domaniale de Reillanne, west leads towards Vachères and beyond. I ended up doing a circuit with the dogs which took about an hour – I imagine this particular route will feature regularly once I start work with the horses!

This is the lavender field, looking south towards a distant Montagne St Victoire, much loved by Paul Cèzanne (and quite a few other artists). The horse-farm is in the middle of the woods on the left.

To the west is the Grand Luberon.

Walk up to the top of the ridge at the back of the farm and you can see all the way across the Montagnes de Lure towards the Haute Alpes and the Italian border.

Having exercised the dogs, I went back for some proper horse time. I caught Aero first, picked out his feet, gave him a quick brush over and combed through the top of his tail where it was all mashed up from travelling. Then we went for a walk. I kept stopping to see if he wanted to pick at the grass, but he was too uneasy to settle and graze. We walked part of the way into the lavender field and then headed back to the farm.

I took him into the lunging ring to see if he’d have a roll.

Nope. Too unsettled for that, too. He volunteered to trot around a bit, so I sent him off for a few laps in either direction. He was enjoying the surface, and looked pretty good for a horse that had just travelled over 2000km.

Then it was Flurry’s turn. I had to have words with Aero at the start – he thought it was perfectly acceptable to bully Flurry while I was picking out his feet. I told him no, that’s not on! He got the message, and I gave Flurry a good brushing. I scraped the last of the Kingsland Mud off him and untangled a massive knot at the top of his tail. I can’t believe how long his tail is – it’s sweeping the ground! Scissors time tomorrow!

We set off for our walk. Flurry was much more interested in grazing than Aero was.

Aero missed his punch-bag/friend as soon as we were out of sight and started calling. Flurry lifted his head enquiringly, and then returned to the grass.

We walked out into the lavender field again and he relaxed visibly, staying close to me all the time and occasionally nudging my hand or my arm as we walked along. I honestly think he really needed some time with me. Although he’s not a very demonstrative horse, he is very attached to me – when my wrist was broken and other people were riding him for me, I would walk out on treks with them. Flurry never took his eyes off me, and if I took a short cut, across a corner of a field, for example, he would try to follow the route I had taken.

I told him not to worry about Aero and that of course I still love him. Not in words, you understand, we just stood together for a while.

Then we went to the sand arena. Aero was still calling for Flurry. He replied politely, once, “I’ll be back soon”

He wasn’t interested in having a roll, either, and he set off to explore the lunging ring. I put him to work in trot for a few laps on either rein and he volunteered a little canter, too.

If anything, he’s stiffer than Aero, but he was willing to do a little work, and the movement will help him loosen up.

As soon as I said “Whoa” he came in to me for a scratch and some more quality time.

Back at the paddock, Aero was waiting. I think the speech bubble, if there was one, would read “Where the hell have you been all this time?”

He took Flurry away as soon as I took the head collar off.

They stood near the neighbouring horses for a while,

then Flurry came back to the gate area to say goodbye

and so did Mr Needy.

Despite spending the whole morning at the farm, I still found it hard to tear myself away, but I know that in order to allow them to rest properly, I need to just let them “be.”

À demain!