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We
both had horses earlier in our life. Ciara owned a grey
Connemara gelding when she was a
horsemad teenager, and
Christophe bought a bay thoroughbred mare when he started turning into a gentleman
farmer in his late thirties. So when we moved to the island full time
in 2003, we
decided to reduce the number of sheep grazing the land and keep
horses.
We bought two Connemara brood mares, Daisy (the Dun) and Bella (the
Bay),
and shortly afterward started looking for a riding horse
(although
both of the brood mares were actually broken).
We found
two, Simbad, a beautiful thoroughbred cross bay gelding, and Misty, a
white Irish Draft mare, and as we couldn't make up our mind
which
one to get, bought the two of them!
Seven years and quite a few foals
later, Daisy has left and is now teaching horse riding to young
children, and Misty has found a new home on the mainland, but we still have the two others, as well as two of their
sons (5 years old Ariel and 2 year old Jazz), and
one of Daisy's
grand daughter (Meade). Bella is taking a break from
breeding, and is turning into a wonderful work horse. And the
children now have their very own riding horses, a sweet little pieball
mare called Suzy and a chestnut gelding, Ginger. A driving cob mare, Jessie, has
also join the team recently, so we currently have 8 horses.
Horses on the farm are kept as naturally as possible. They are never
stabled, as we
believe that this is detrimental to their physical and emotional well
being, and since we discovered barefoot riding
and the work of Jaime
jackson, they are ridden and worked barefoot. They are also trained for
bitless riding
(and, in Bella's case, bitless driving).
We use herbal
wormers rather than chemicals to keep them worm free.
Christophe has a keen interest in training horses, and
this had led him to look into
natural horsemanship and
training methods
sympathetic to the horses. He has studied horsemanship with Kelly Marks
(a student of Monty Roberts) and has learned the basics of the Parrelli
method of horsemahship. He is currently studying
horsemanship with Vanessa
Bee, of Positive Horsemanship. He is also a great fan of Mark Rashid's books,
and generally speaking, an avid reader of horsemanship books.
In the summer, we occasionally offer
equine activities for children (age 6 - 12),
contact us for more details.
We have a 16 m round pen (which doubles up as a small sand arena) for
training and riding.
We run a number of horse related training
courses, particularly
barefoot trimming.
We sometimes
have some Connemara
ponies for sale.
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