A few hundred yards up the hill Daniel had a couple more horses at his village barn. No saddles or bridles!
'It's quite steep - Hang on the mane if you need to'.
He was right - it was steep and I did have to hang on to the mane. The house was at 1300 metres, and looked out across the mountains. It was a beautiful sunny day and the whole scene felt idyllic. I'm guessing it's pretty tough up there in Winter.
After coffee Daniel put some harness on the mare that I had just ridden up the mountain and off we went to his garden to do a spot of work. First he harrowed the ground, including a quick lesson for my son Paul.
Then he spread the seed, and harrowed it in.
While he showed Paul around the rest of the garden I took the horse back home. She was so sweet to work.
Daniel has lived and worked with his horses in these mountains for 35 years.
What are horses like this worth - more than money can buy I reckon.
3 comments:
Really cool, Tom.
Thanx for sharing it.
Guess there's a real partnership when you live like that with the horses. Amazing pics.
Proper working horses with a job to do- excellent stuff.
Horses seem to love having a job to do and working with someone who is clear and consistent. I don't think they really mind what that job is as long as it is reasonably predictable.
We've got a couple of polo ponies on loan for winter and they've both arrived looking pretty poor. However, both are good polo ponies and do their job well and seem to view people fairly positively, although people have obviously given them a reasonably rough deal in terms of their physical health. Their mental health however appears to be pretty good.
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