Luxor (Oberlix x Lilka) remporte une médaille de bronze au Golden Horseshoe Ride in Exmoor

Druimghigha Luxor est le fils d'Oberlix et Lilka.
Il vient de remporter une médaille de bronze au Golden Horseshoe Ride (Exmoor). Andrea Champ nous raconte sa joie après une la victoire :

"Luxor et moi avons participé à l'épreuve Exmoor Experience à la Golden Horseshoe Ride in Exmoor, et remporté une médaille de bronze, manquant la médaille d'argent à cause du pouls de Luxor au contrôle, il avait un point de trop !



En fait c'était la seconde participation de Luxor dans cette catégorie, la dernière fois c'était en 2008, avec ses précédents propriétaires, et il avait emporté la médaille d'argent, il se révèle donc un cheval très régulier ! Je l'ai depuis à peine un an, et c'est le meilleur cheval que j'ai ei la chance d'avoir. En tempérament, il n'a pas son pareil, il a un esprit très délicat, et se montre parfois très décontracté. Il dort beaucoup et ses ronflements sont impressionnants !

Il ne travaille pas plus que ce qu'il sent nécessaire, mais quand il s'agit de compétition, il se réveille et en veut ! Il adore son métier d'endurance, et c'est un grand plaisir de le monter.
Luxor est brave et fait tout son possible pour dépasser ses inquiétudes dans les situations étranges, même s'il reste vraiment, par nature, un Arabe au sang chaud.
Je me sens comblée d'avoir un tel cheval."

Le dernier-né de Shemal !

Le Stud de DRUIMGHIGHA accueille un petit dernier :

Shemal a eu son dernier poulain dans la nuit du 15 mai !

Il est brun et aventureux, avec 4 balzanes comme sa mère.

Le bébé et la mère vont bien.

Shemal sur le point de pouliner

D'ici deux semaines, le poulain de Shemal devrait se montrer.

Neige et fleurs

Il neige encore à La Combe, mais les fleurs pointent leur nez, de plus en plus nombreuses. L'amandier lui aussi est en fleurs.

Christmas Letter 2009

Voici notre Lettre de Noël 2009 pour les membres de l'association, les amis et la famille. En anglais !

The year started with Chris breaking his ankle while asking Oryx to lie down, Jake and Marthe leaving him to cope with the farm with the help of the students while they visited Botswana and South Africa to investigate the possibility of interest in an international academy to teach the science of animal handling and teaching. We had written the first draft of a text book to be critically assessed by those handling elephants. While in Maun, Jake took part in a fun ridden cross country event, galloping through the water-lily strewn Okavongo river, and jumping over tables laid for smart safari dinners. He was lent a delightful pony, and won! There was some interest in the academy in Botswana, and we ran a workshop for people with horses which was fun, re-established our previous contacts , gave some riding lessons. Although Botswana is a quite delightful country, and would be very suitable for the academy, strong interest was at that time lacking.

A trip to the Cape in South Africa established closer links with the Knysna Elephant Paark, and there is a very real possibility that we may be able to cooperate with them in it’s establishment, something that is particularly relevant at present in South Africa with much opposition to captive animals on the grounds of causing cruelty. We visited KEP new nature reserve & farm right next to the sea where around 15 problem elephants are presently living.

Chris’s leg was bad all summer, and scuppered any ideas of long distance competitive rides, but he managed to keep driving the tractor until it went into deep decline from July to September when the summer hols were over, and the French mechanics start work again! This meant we lost the autumn cultivations which has in some ways put the farm back a year, but now the tractor is back and working at last.

The spring was slightly late, but the vegetables, (other than potatoes and onions) have done well, with several 100kg of carrots for the winter. ( visions of endless carrot soups and cakes!). A total of 56 varieties of fruit and vegetables have been grown and harvested during the year which can’t be bad, and we have a large range of jams, jellies, chutneys and other preserves for sale and consumption. Many of the fruit trees produced for the first time this year, with particularly delicious apricots, and peche de vigne.

The improved grass and lucerne is gradually coming, we still need to feed the soil more and pick the patches for improvement carefully, but we managed to make about 1/3rd of our needed hay this year. 2010 was planned to be the first year to plant and harvest wheat and oats for human consumption but with sick tractors, we have only managed a small area of naked oats. However we are feeling more confident that we will be able to complete the tenets of ecological agriculture in the next few years by becoming completely self-sustaining in human and animal fodder.

We sold some of the cattle which we considered were not up to standard, and intend in the next while to bring some really good South Devon heifers over and return to a pedigree herd of South Devons. Some of the sheep have gone walk about in the mountains, and again we intend to bring over a Suffolk ram when we have all the paper work and get a few high quality wool and meat sheep.

It was a very pleasant if hot summer, with a stream of wwoofers from all over the world, and 2 horse students, Jorinda from Holland and Delphine from Switzerland. They have recently completed their exams and gone on to other things, having we hope, learnt much from the Druimghigha horses. Jake has been helping on the farm, redoing the rooms, even putting in water borne WC’s, constructing buildings and fences, and had his first spring and autumn of Horse Riding Holidays, and articles in various newspapers. All seem to have been appreciative of the horses, the rides, the lessons, and the cooking of food from the farm, let us hope it now grows, do tell your friends and look at his website Horseridingfrance.com.

Primarily, this has been the year of the puppies. Kaz and Bear had a litter, of which 2 were saved in February and have grown up to be half spaniels, half kelpie/collies/Alsatians. The interesting thing is that they can use both their noses and their sight when working. Kongo is to be given to Sam ( he had a false trip to Calais, and was not allowed across the channel in July, resulting in Marthe traveling to Calais and back with him in one day on the TGV, hopefully he will make it to Suffolk in January). He is to be a retriever, working in wetlands, and woods. Aged 7 months he is very enthusiastic, and has learnt basic retrieving skills. Kananga stays with Jake and is supposed to become a truffle hunting dog, he retrieves some truffle paste at the moment, but there is further to go. They have been a delightful enthusiastic, bright, playful, demanding, lunatic pair as only puppies can be.

On the horse front, no foals this year, but Lantana (2) is now being driven and ridden over short distances, and so far has been a very willing, and easy pupil. Shindy and Lilka did a 20km ride, the only one we managed to fit in, and came first and second, even though Jake and Marthe managed to stop and stuff themselves with ripe peaches in one of the orchards that we passed! Shemal is pregnant to Oryx again, and their son Shimoni (4) has done some fitness training and is ready now to take the world by storm. Shemal and Obi are now doing all the movements of Grand Prix (except 1 x changes which Obi does while throwing his head about, and Shemal has not tried yet), and the indoor manege has proved a great asset with daily teaching right through the winter, although it was good to get out into the bigger outdoor manege in the summer.

So the farm is gradually beginning to achieve what we hoped it would. It is now a registered Organic Holding, and things are indeed growing. Financially, we are just covering running costs (with the help of subsidies), but still have some capital investments to make, particularly another lean to barn for the cattle and sheep, and an observation room for the wildlife on the cliffs, particularly the Chamois.

A very happy Christmas to all our family associates, friends, and well wishers and do come and visit and see for yourselves how things are going.
All at La Combe. 2 and 4 legged.

Conseil en Comportement et Bien-être des animaux

Conseil en Comportement et Bien-être des animaux /

Consultancy on Animal Behaviour Problems and Animal Welfare

The Centre runs clinics, workshops and a consultancy to help people with behavioural problems of their companion animals, horses, farm or wild animals.

We give advise on how, (given the particular facilities,) an improve quality of life and welfare of domestic and captive animals can be achieved. We work for governments, private individuals, zoos, circuses, national parks, nature reserves, farmers and NGO’s all over the world and published widely (c.v’s & list publications).

The principle advisor is Dr. M.Kiley-Worthington (B.Sc.D.Phil. M.Phil. BHSAI, Fellow Girton College Cambridge) who has spent her professional life researching the behavioural problems & welfare of mammals, and is one a well known and experienced Animal Behaviour Consultant world, wide with over 30 years experience. In the case of a particular behavioural problem, it is first established that the problem is not due to a physical disease by,if necessary, calling in a veterinary surgeon. A personal consultation by visit or via telephone/email is then arranged. A written report will be submitted if requested.

Livres & Articles

Livres en Anglais

par le Dr. Marthe Kiley-Worthington

Horse Behaviour in Relation to Management and Training (1983)

Reprinted 1999, translated into German, Italian, French and Dutch (in process), (available from the publisher & author, paper back £10.90).

This was the first book on horse behaviour written by a scientist who had studied the behaviour of horses, and outlines the fundamentals of their physiology, perception, social organization, communication, breeding etc.
It also covers how learning works and discusses whether current horse management maximizes their welfare. It has been perhaps the most influential book in the recent change of attitudes concerning horses management and training.

Equine Welfare (1998)

J.A.Allen, (available from the author £10.00 hard back). This book is the first book about a single species which examines all the current arguments concerning animal welfare science, and applies them to whether what we do with our horses and how we keep them complies with maximizing their welfare. It includes a review of whether we should or should not compete in the many ways we do with equines, (combine training, jumping, racing, endurance etc) and covers what are the major welfare questions surrounding less well known subjects such as working donkeys (the most numerous working animal to day), zebras, working horses on the farm and travelling with them. It examines all the arguments thoroughly from both sides, and concludes that we can do all these things with equines and still provide a life of quality for them, but some things need to change if we are seriously interested in their welfare.

Equine Education (2003)

Whittet books, (available from the publisher hardback £17.50). This book shows how what we know about the being of a horse (covered in Horse Watch) should be put into practice when teaching equines.

It covers needs of the horse and how to keep them so these are fulfilled, learning theory, handling young and old, first riding, more advanced riding, jumping, long distance, travelling and living with equines and many more subjects. It is full of simple useful and effective tested methods and ideas.

Horse Watch (2005)

What is it to be a Horse, J. A. Allen large hardback with colour illustrations, (available from publisher @ £25, from author @ £21). This is perhaps the most important book about a single species and how they experience the world that has so far been published. In simple language understandable by any horse lover who can read, it reviews all the current ideas from many disciplines including cognitive science about how we can begin to know what the mental abilities of equines really are, and where they are similar or different from humans so we can begin to understand each individuals point of view. It give a host of examples and much new empirical results of the authors and others recent research. Although this is a controversial subject, the author, uniquely among writers to date, is not only a scientist and scholar, but is a professional instructor, breeder and international competitor. As a result, this book combines all information from scholars as well as from knowledge about horses from those who have daily experiences with them professionally. The message is that there are ways in which we can learn to better understand these animals, but we must be seriously aware of faulty preconceptions.

If you would like to purchase any of these books please email jake@horseridingfrance.com