Last weekend, our last course for 2011 here on our smallholding near Bantry took place with three eager participants.

We all enjoyed a surprisingly hot sunny day with the horses. After harnessing and long-reining practise in the paddock, we went to the field to work with the chain harrow, which was one of the highlights, as this was true horse power in action.
Foal Flora was very excited about the activities and inspected the clanging hopping chain harrow from a safe distance, but then trotted along with Winnie happily, feeling proud part of the process.

The afternoon was spent finding out about different horse drawn tools and their use, and Henry showed his skills at negotiating the cart amongst the vegetable beds in the garden and scuffling between the sugar beet.

The next dates for courses here in Bantry will be in Spring 2012 - watch our Courses page for details.

The last course planned for 2011 is our logging course on 8th October at Manch Estate near Enniskeane. Again, see Courses for more details!

Great news about the trap. It was possible for Bill who had made the trap for me initially, to bend the shafts with his hydraulic pipe bender to fit Winnie's belly shape. And now she fits betweent the shafts perfectly, and we can continue with our short trips up and down the road. She is doing well and negotiating barking dogs, cars passing at 60km/h (they all seem in such a hurry these days, no time to slow down for a horse in training, despite my waving of arms!), rattling trailers, imagined monsters in the hedge, and of course her separation from little Flora, who feels so grown up, being left behind with daddy Henry.