By Francesca Prescott
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| Photo by Aurore Biron |
One year ago, Ecurie de la Ruche*, the
stables where Qrac lives, inaugurated its new facilities. Previously a small,
cosy village-stable with comfortable but basic facilities for 15 horses, La
Ruche
morphed into a top class, high-tech, super chic, state of the art equestrian
paradise for 50 lucky steeds.
Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been
absent from this blog for twelve months, before finally reappearing last week.
Well, the main reason for my absence is that despite the stables being a four
minute drive from my house instead of the 45 minutes it took me to get to Qrac’s
previous residence, I seem to spend even more time partaking in horse related
activities than I used to. It’s now so easy to go backwards and forwards to the
stables that I practically live there. Also, I really appreciate being able to
check on Qrac more than just once a day, to change a blanket if necessary, to
pick out his feet if he’s been in the field, reassure myself that he’s ok if I
have the slightest doubt about anything.
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| Qrac enjoying his terrace. He was lighter in the summer! |
Qrac has a massive box with a matching
massive terrace, which means his social life is wonderful as when he’s not with
me, he’s either discussing carrots and sharing dressage tips on his terrace with
his pony neighbour, or he’s out in the field, or, when the ground gets too
waterlogged, hanging out in one of the “sand pits (winter parks). All in all, I
think he’s a pretty happy horse.
And I’m a happy lady, because La Ruche is a
great place for humans, too. The atmosphere is great, everyone gets along, and
everywhere is always spotlessly clean without anyone coming across as obsessive
compulsive about picking up a fleck of horse poo, or a strand of horse hair or
anything. People just get on with things, generally clean up after themselves, and
there is genuine mutual respect and friendship in the air. We even have Happy
Hour every Friday afternoon as of approximately 5 o’clock until approximately
goodness knows what time, with giggles aplenty! I love it! I think we all do.
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| Qrac gets plenty of turnout and likes to roll in the mud... |
So last Saturday, we all celebrated one
year of Rucharian bliss (Rucharians being the inhabitants of La Ruche, of
course) with a Christmas competition. I think I have two extra wrinkles on
either side of my mouth from an excess of smiling all day long. Seriously, it
was a blast.
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| Concentration! Photo Aurore Biron |
The festivities officially began at one
o’clock with a dressage competition, followed, as of three, by jumping. We had
all picked a competition partner: one person rode dressage, the other jumped.
Some of the jumping participants proved particularly versatile, partnering
twice in order to also take part in the dressage. There were different dressage
tests and jumping heights according to everyone’s level, and the scores of each
partnership’s dressage test and jumping course were added up, meaning that if
you didn’t do a great dressage test, if your partner rode a fabulous jumping
round your chances of winning or placing were still intact. Riding as a team
made the event even more socially interactive, with everyone rooting for one
another. As a dressage rider, accustomed to hushed, poker-faced ambiances, it
was wonderful to ride in a lively, fun-scented atmosphere, with louder music
than usual, and people clapping and cheering and generally having a great time.
There was less pressure of course, but that didn’t mean that we didn’t take our
programs and courses any less seriously; I’d worked hard to ride a higher level
test than I’ve ever ridden before, and I was delighted with how hard Qrac tried
for me in front of the judge, by how relaxed he stayed, and by how well we
scored. But best of all, I thoroughly enjoyed my ride.
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Me and my boy
Photo Aurore Biron |
My partner, Antoine M., later rode a very
nice clear-round, taking his time around the course so as not to wind-up his
excitable Chicos Boy, and we ended up in 5th place. We were both so
happy you’d have thought we’d won the Olympics or the World Games or something,
high-fiving one another over and over! A fun detail was that the prize-giving
ceremony took place on horseback, which was a first for me, and Qrac and I
loved galloping around the indoor arena with our ribbon trailing from his
bridle while the crowd cheered. Such fun!
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Antoine M. and Chicos Boy going for it!
Photo Isabelle Von Wattenwyl |
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| Did we win the Olympics or something?! |
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| Yay! |
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| Antoine M. and Chicos Boy |
But the fun wasn’t over yet, because one of
our fellow Rucharians had prepared an in-hand presentation to music, with her
horse doing all sorts of cool tricks, such as Spanish walk, curtseying, and
lying down. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch her show since I was already back
on Qrac, warming up in the outside arena with my friend Josephine and her beautiful
black Oldenburg, Swarowski, for our pas-de-deux.
Josephine and I had hummed and hahed about
doing a pas-de-deux at the competition for quite some time. Believe me, if we’d
realised how difficult riding side-by-side to music would turn out to be, we’d
have done a lot less humming and hahing and a lot more practising. Basically,
we finally got it together ten days beforehand, and only practised the
choreography four or five times, the first attempt being complete pandemonium,
our horses becoming demented with excitement! We considered calling the whole
thing off, but since we’d already bought our outfits, throwing in the towel struck
us as a bit of a waste. Besides, we liked what we were going to wear, we loved
the music we’d chosen (Ricky Martin’s new single, Adios), and the horses looked
amazing side-by-side, so on we toiled, prancing and and sweating, determined to
produce something vaguely decent and fun to watch. Things went a little more
smoothly the second time we ran through our (very basic) choreography, and we
enjoyed ourselves, particularly during the final bit where we passaged (or attempted
to!) down the centre line side-by-side to Ricky’s infectious Latino beat.
Anyway, so late last Saturday afternoon,
Josephine and I wriggled into our red jodhpurs, put on our white shirts with
the frilly black-edged ruffles down the front, and our little black cropped jackets.
We clipped on our long blonde swishy ponytails, inserted our big gold dangly-jangly
hooped earrings, and put on our wide-brimmed, Spanish-style black hats. We had initially
planned on wearing bright red lipstick, too, but we didn’t get around to
applying it as everything was all a bit of a mad rush. Our friend Aurore, who
had drawn up our choreography, quickly threaded red ribbon through Qrac and
Swarowski’s plaited manes. Both horses looked amazing. Actually, if I may say
so myself, I think Josephine and I looked pretty amazing too!
However, once we were riding around
outside, warming up, I soon realised that there was no way my hat was going to
stay on, despite having secured it under my chin with red ribbon. It was far
too big and kept on flopping down in front of my eyes, preventing me from seeing
where I was going. Also, as soon as I asked Qrac to canter, the wide brim
caught in the wind and the hat blew off backwards. My husband handed it back to
me twice, but I knew we’d have to make last minute adjustments to our
presentation. Josephine’s hat was a smaller size than mine and seemed to be
staying on fine, so she was a bit disappointed when I suggested we throw them off
theatrically when we saluted, but had to agree it was the best way to start the
show.
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| Help! I can't see!!! |
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| Our swishy pony-tails! |
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| What comes next...?! |
So we rode into the indoor arena on our
prancing black horses feeling fabulous. The music started and off we went,
trotting around the arena and down the centre line, our ponytails swishing, my
hat falling down over my nose, Qrac shying at the loudspeakers. We halted,
bowed our heads, grinned at the expectant crowd and threw off our hats!
Everyone cheered, and I’d swear I even heard a few wolf-whistles as away we
trotted, parting and coming back together, crossing over in half pass, extending
across the diagonal, Qrac thoroughly beside himself with excitement. It took a
team effort to remind each other what came next, and we rode the entire thing
giggling away about how wonky it was all turning out, while thoroughly enjoying
ourselves. Everyone cheered as we finished, and we clattered out into the night
all starry eyed as people milled around, showering us with compliments and
congratulations. Ooh, it was so much fun!
An excellent cheese raclette for 74 people
ensued, with oodles of atmosphere and plenty of wine. As the evening wound down
and numbers dwindled, a group of us thought it would be fun to have a bit of a
boogie. Driving was out of the question, so someone suggested we go across the
road to her house. Off we went, cranking up the music, shaking our booties until
we could shake them no more.
What struck me particularly, as well as the
rest of the people I’ve spoken to about their impressions of Saturday, was the infectious
enthusiasm and camaraderie that buzzed around the place, despite the low-lying
cloud and the cold and the bone-marinating humidity. It was a genuinely happy
day. Call me mushy, but the entire event seemed infused with love and
generosity, both on the part of the tireless and charismatic Kilchherr family who own
the premises, and on the part all those attending, be they participants
or spectators. Everyone lent a hand, baking, putting up jumps, measuring and
laying out the temporary dressage arena within the huge indoor school, poop-scooping,
buying food, setting up the sound system, taking photos, cleaning up,
decorating, giving riding advice when things weren’t going to plan in the
warm-up arena, announcing riders and horses over the loudspeaker, scraping
raclettes, scooping potatoes, making desserts. It was a team effort, everyone
was really into it, making it a very special day that will be remembered for a
very long time.
I hope we can do it again soon!
*FYI, “La Ruche” is French for “the
beehive”. Hence the buzz!
PS: The photos of Josephine and I during our pas-de-deux were made by Josephine's husband from screenshots of the video of our mesmerising performance. You see, we were so mesmerising that nobody remembered to take any photos of us!
All I wanted for Christmas since I can remember was a pony. Where did that 'obsession' come from? Is it genetic? My dad liked horses, but even after I started incessantly babbling about wanting one, I do not remember a pony ride or a neighbor with horses. So where did this love come from? For Christmas when I was four, I got a Steiff pony that I still have today though it has no ears or tail left. That only fueled the fire. Breyer horses followed until I had a stable full. Finally, my parents relented--after we moved to the country--and my father and I got our pony.
Today one of the things I enjoy the most is finding, selling and collecting vintage horse treasures. There are thousands of them out there which attests to the popularity of equines. Since I wrote almost fifty horse books, I snatch up any vintage horse book I can find: Misty of Chincoteague, Black Stallion, Black Beauty. I learned to read so I could finish all the Billy and Blaze books. And I learned to draw because of my love of Wesley Dennis, C.W.Anderson, and Sam Savitt's marvelous black and white illustrations. Above is an old Linda Craig from the 1960s. When the series was revived in the 1980s, I was one of the first to write the new books, which were paperback, of course, and not nearly as cool as the old ones.
Recently I bought a big lot of 1970s Breyer Horses with their original boxes. The price for Breyers has gone down, mainly because they have made so many for so long. I can't keep all of them, so I am slowly selling them on Ebay and in my booths. But I still admire their craftsmanship and beauty, and I hope that they will remain collectible for a long time.
