Last weekend my friend jacqui and I put both horses on her lorry and took them away for a 2 day Bridle Ride in Oxfordshire. Bridle Rides www.bridlerides.co.uk
give you the maps of your ride marked up, and provide a farmhouse dinner bed and breakfast.
For those that don't know me, Sennie is my 19 year old welsh section d. I won't describe him as you'll see plenty of him in the write up. I am a late returner to riding having bought my first horse age 40.
We had a wonderful time
Jacqui arrived on Friday morning with her lovely 15hh seven eighths thoroughbred, Jazzy, and we plopped Sennie on the lorry, and made for a small hamlet in the Oxfordshire hills called Woolley. Sennie travelled really well. Much to do with Jacqui’s excellent driving.
The farmhouse was lovely,
and Evelyn and Robert, made us very welcome. We had a stable for each of the horses and a paddock which we electric fenced off as jazzy was in season. Evelyn was really easy going and let us get on with it, which was ideal. The drive took about 2 hours and forty, so after settling ourselves and the horses in, we went in for dinner, which was a full three courses and wine affair. Great food and fab company. We loved it.
So, for the first day’s ride we did 14 miles, with a picnic stop in the middle at an old iron age castle.
The riding is just gorgeous, very off the beaten track. We had some lovely canters. Sennie looked at everything in wonder, as he does. At first Jazzy thought he was looking at things because he was scared, and we had a bit of spinning round on her part. After a couple of times she realised he’s just a nosey devil, and she was fine. He looked at sheep, cows, cars in the distance, you name it. He loves hacking, and enjoys the scenery as much as I do.
Sennie was really excited to start with, but soon calmed down, and enjoyed the ride. Jazzy took lead file most of the way as she is faster than Sen (and much better schooled), but he had to lead through two fields of cows as he finds them fascinating
, but Jazzy finds them scary. She did very well.
It was a lovely ride. We thought the day couldn’t get much better. However, day 2, was even more wonderful.
On the Saturday evening, after another one of Evelyn’s fab farm meals (this is not a ride to do if you’re diet conscious). The night before we had mentioned that both Jacqui and I love bread and butter pudding. Guess what we had for pudding? Delicious. We called up the pub where we intended to stop for lunch, and booked a roast dinner each for one o’clock. More of this later.
So we began day two, with a wonderful ride through a beautiful village with a Queen Anne rectory which John Betjeman used to live in. Stunning. Then we rode into the most beautiful woods covered in bluebells.
The sight and scent were astounding. We rode on down a roman road, to a long uphill grassy expanse to the Ridgeway at the top. It’s about 1.5 miles, and if your horse was fit enough, you could do the whole thing in canter.
We did about half a mile, at which point we had to stop as Jazzy had pulled her bridle apart. After putting that together, we rode on up the hill and cantered the last quarter of a mile. Sennie by this time, was panting, poor man. We couldn’t keep up with Jazzy. But what a wonderful canter, as you can see in the photos.
The first showed where we’d cantered up to, and the second where it went on up the hill to the Ridgeway.
So we walked right along the top of the Ridgeway, the scenery was just amazing, and then turned onto some of the local gallops to go back downhill to the pub. Sennie by this time had his second wind, but I wouldn’t allow him to canter again. He’d done enough and we had a considerable way to go. Jacqui and I couldn’t stop harping on about how glorious the ride was. It was truly wonderful. Coming down the hill to West Illsely we saw a red kite very close soaring over the fields, which was just the icing on the cake.
So, we arrived at the pub and baler twined the two horses to the park bench on the village green, in front of the duck pond. We arrived bang on 1 o’clock, much to our amazement. We sat on the park bench with the horses, eating our roast dinner in the sunshine.
How lovely was that? We then had pudding, of cheesecake and brownies, and I discovered Sennie likes ice cream… off a spoon.
Following lunch we rode back home through the bluebell woods.
Both Sennie and Jazzy were very tired by the time we got back, but they’d both been amazing. The day two ride was 11 miles and was probably the best ride I’ve ever had. Fantastic.
After some chill time in the field,
and packing up, we loaded the horses up and drove home, getting back about 8.30. Sennie has missed his friend Jazzy. Jacqui and I got on great, wonderful scenery, the weather was lovely, Evelyn and Robert at the farm were very hospitable. I recommend it highly.
Lots of lovely memories of a first class ride.
give you the maps of your ride marked up, and provide a farmhouse dinner bed and breakfast.
For those that don't know me, Sennie is my 19 year old welsh section d. I won't describe him as you'll see plenty of him in the write up. I am a late returner to riding having bought my first horse age 40.
We had a wonderful time
Jacqui arrived on Friday morning with her lovely 15hh seven eighths thoroughbred, Jazzy, and we plopped Sennie on the lorry, and made for a small hamlet in the Oxfordshire hills called Woolley. Sennie travelled really well. Much to do with Jacqui’s excellent driving.
The farmhouse was lovely,
and Evelyn and Robert, made us very welcome. We had a stable for each of the horses and a paddock which we electric fenced off as jazzy was in season. Evelyn was really easy going and let us get on with it, which was ideal. The drive took about 2 hours and forty, so after settling ourselves and the horses in, we went in for dinner, which was a full three courses and wine affair. Great food and fab company. We loved it.
So, for the first day’s ride we did 14 miles, with a picnic stop in the middle at an old iron age castle.
The riding is just gorgeous, very off the beaten track. We had some lovely canters. Sennie looked at everything in wonder, as he does. At first Jazzy thought he was looking at things because he was scared, and we had a bit of spinning round on her part. After a couple of times she realised he’s just a nosey devil, and she was fine. He looked at sheep, cows, cars in the distance, you name it. He loves hacking, and enjoys the scenery as much as I do.
Sennie was really excited to start with, but soon calmed down, and enjoyed the ride. Jazzy took lead file most of the way as she is faster than Sen (and much better schooled), but he had to lead through two fields of cows as he finds them fascinating
, but Jazzy finds them scary. She did very well. It was a lovely ride. We thought the day couldn’t get much better. However, day 2, was even more wonderful.
On the Saturday evening, after another one of Evelyn’s fab farm meals (this is not a ride to do if you’re diet conscious). The night before we had mentioned that both Jacqui and I love bread and butter pudding. Guess what we had for pudding? Delicious. We called up the pub where we intended to stop for lunch, and booked a roast dinner each for one o’clock. More of this later.
So we began day two, with a wonderful ride through a beautiful village with a Queen Anne rectory which John Betjeman used to live in. Stunning. Then we rode into the most beautiful woods covered in bluebells.
The sight and scent were astounding. We rode on down a roman road, to a long uphill grassy expanse to the Ridgeway at the top. It’s about 1.5 miles, and if your horse was fit enough, you could do the whole thing in canter.
We did about half a mile, at which point we had to stop as Jazzy had pulled her bridle apart. After putting that together, we rode on up the hill and cantered the last quarter of a mile. Sennie by this time, was panting, poor man. We couldn’t keep up with Jazzy. But what a wonderful canter, as you can see in the photos.
The first showed where we’d cantered up to, and the second where it went on up the hill to the Ridgeway.
So we walked right along the top of the Ridgeway, the scenery was just amazing, and then turned onto some of the local gallops to go back downhill to the pub. Sennie by this time had his second wind, but I wouldn’t allow him to canter again. He’d done enough and we had a considerable way to go. Jacqui and I couldn’t stop harping on about how glorious the ride was. It was truly wonderful. Coming down the hill to West Illsely we saw a red kite very close soaring over the fields, which was just the icing on the cake.
So, we arrived at the pub and baler twined the two horses to the park bench on the village green, in front of the duck pond. We arrived bang on 1 o’clock, much to our amazement. We sat on the park bench with the horses, eating our roast dinner in the sunshine.
How lovely was that? We then had pudding, of cheesecake and brownies, and I discovered Sennie likes ice cream… off a spoon.
Following lunch we rode back home through the bluebell woods.
Both Sennie and Jazzy were very tired by the time we got back, but they’d both been amazing. The day two ride was 11 miles and was probably the best ride I’ve ever had. Fantastic.
After some chill time in the field,
and packing up, we loaded the horses up and drove home, getting back about 8.30. Sennie has missed his friend Jazzy. Jacqui and I got on great, wonderful scenery, the weather was lovely, Evelyn and Robert at the farm were very hospitable. I recommend it highly.
Lots of lovely memories of a first class ride.
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