-UK vacation finale! 

Horse Holiday Farm 

This last part of our trip was purely for fun!  We flew from England to Ireland on Wed., July 21 and landed at the Knock airport in pouring rain.  The farm arranged for a taxi driver to meet us there and drive us to the farm in Grange, County Sligo.  What a beautiful place! 

The view from our bedroom window.

Owners Tilman & Colette Anhold run a B&B there on the farm, and when we arrived, our wonderful hostess, Karin, got us settled in our room and got tea for us.  Even though it was monsooning outside all day, we could tell the view of the shore, sea & islands was gorgeous.  And when the sun came up the next morning….WOW!….what a view!  The weather was perfect, cool & sunny, and we got to meet our mounts for our first day of riding. 

A guided group ride through the dunes.

A nice walk across the open field.

We had two beautiful days of riding the beautiful countryside & seashore, making new friends, and eating well.  The horses know all their usual trails, so it’s nearly impossible to get lost.  They also know that when they get down on the wet, hard-packed sand that they get to gallop.  Somehow, I ended up with Butler, whom everyone told me is the fastest horse on the farm.  He’s a Connemara-Thouroughbred cross, and he goes like the wind….terrifyingly exhilarating.  Jeff got a nice Irish Hunter named Carmack.  Of course, we’re used to riding in western saddles, so the whole English tack thing took awhile for us to get used to.  Which we did. 

Riding amid the sheep & cows in the pasture.

We went on a guided ride our first day, to get a feel for the horses and our surroundings, which were spectacular.

Riding across a mountain field.

The farm is right on the seashore, so you’re riding through the fields & dunes, on the sandy shore, and at low tide, across the water to the islands.  Of course, you always first asked Tilman what time the tide would come back in so you could get off the islands in time. 

Riding across the wide expanse of now-bare sand.

On our second riding day, we headed out with our new German friends, Anna & Insa, along the shore to the one island. 

The trail through the sea.

It seemed strange to think that we were actually riding across the sea floor, when it just looked like sandy shore.  In one rocky, seaweedy area, we could actually see a trail through the ’stuff’ of the sea floor.  We stopped for lunch on the dunes, and Carmack stood like a statue, keeping watch across the water as we ate. 

Carmack standing sentry.

When we headed back to the mainland, the tide was coming back in and the water was a bit deep, but the horses plowed right through it.

Butler looks to see how deep it is.

Whenever you got back from a ride, it was your responsibility to put tack away, hose off your horse & give them their bucket of feed.  Then you took them down to the pasture to turn them out.

On the trail with Anna & Insa.

This system seems to create an atmosphere of comraderie among guests.  They also have a bus come every

Turn out time.

 evening to take everyone to a local restaurant for dinner.  It was a nice time to share the day’s adventures over, invariably, your meat & potatoes.

Jeff & our trusty mounts, Carmack & Butler.

Our remaining two days over the weekend were a bit dreary & wet, but we weren’t about to miss out on riding.  We just put on our raincoats & went riding.  We made it over to the island that our bedroom overlooks, and spent a few hours exploring the hillsides & ruins.

Remains of an old farm.

I do believe the whole of Ireland must have been completely covered in rocks when it’s first inhabitants arrived.  The country is full of old rock walls & buildings.  It’s quite beautiful.

One of many rock wall fences.

On this trip to the little island, we also got to see some seals, sunning themselves on the sand.  But they didn’t hang around long enough for us to get very close.

We were watching the seals & they were watching us.

A rainy ride across the sea floor.

Of course, all good things must come to an end, and Monday morning it was time to say goodbye to our new friends.  I would highly recommend Horse Holiday Farm to anyone wanting to ride the Irish coast.  Then it was off to the airport for our flight home, and so….here we are.

A view from the dunes across to the Atlantic.

              -Vacation in Wales, continued

Tuesday, July 20th was the highlight of our time spent in Wales.  We had a beautiful drive across the countryside and two wonderful farm visits.

Free-roaming sheep along the road in the commonlands.

 The Elan Valley

We left Lower Fishpools Cottage in the morning, headed for Penuwch to visit Ken & Jacqi Parks.  Jeff had contacted Jacqi through their Dexter association, and she had invited us for dinner & a visit.  Jeff just typed their address into the “tomtom” (GPS unit) and trusted the gizmo to get us there.  Well, said tomtom seemed to have a fetish for little back roads that make the most direct route to your destination.  So, needless to say, we had quite an interesting drive to Penuwch.

This sheep crossed the road right in front of us to find her buddies.

We first encountered something we’d never seen before: a cattle grate in the road with a sign that said “Caution: Animals”.  Once over the cattle grate, we found ourselves in what Ken later told us was called the commonlands, a large open area where nearby farmers may turn out their animals to roam & graze.  There were sheep everywhere….hundreds of them!  It was quite a sight to behold.

The Elan Valley: lush fields, sheep, and green hedgerows.

After several miles of watching out for unconcerned sheep, we exited the commonlands and went on through the Elan Valley.  It was an absolutely gorgeous drive, in spite of the pouring rain.  When we told Ken how we had come, he said we had seen the most beautiful part of all Wales, and I have no doubt that it’s true!  We were very glad we took Tomtom’s advice on this trip.

I hope a picture is worth a thousand words, because there's no way to describe the Elan Valley.

Barking Mad

We got to Ken & Jacqi’s place, and even though it was raining, we went out to see their herd.  They have a nice little herd of red cows and two red bulls.  They milk the cows and raise steers for beef.  They were all great-looking animals, who were all later put into the shed.  Jacqi says they’ve spoiled them, and now they all expect to be brought in when the weather isn’t nice.

Ken telling me about their cows.

She had fixed us a wonderful dinner of roast lamb with mint gravy, potatoes & “veg” and a lovely pie of apples & berries for dessert.  After filling our stomachs, we all squeezed into their little car and they took us to visit the herd belonging to Rhidian & Judy Lewis in Newcastle Emlyn. 

One of the Parks' pretty, little, red cows...in the dry shed.

It was such an entertaining trip – both Ken & Jacqi can tell things in an absolutely hilarious fashion, and I think we laughed the whole way there.  We heard all about the horrors of beaurocracy and governmental control of agriculture.  The NAIS has got nothin’ on the English system!  This was where we applied our newly learned phrase:  “barking mad”.  Yes, the English government officials & those in the EU making these laws are, indeed, barking mad!  What insanity!

Stroppy Cows 

Here come the cows!

We arrived at the Lewis farm with it still pouring the rain.  Jacqi was continually apologetic about the awful weather, as if she could do anything about it.  We all just donned our raincoats and went to visit dripping cows.  Oh, well. 

Rhid & Judy have a herd of about 30-40 Dexters, for milk & beef, plus a few beef shorthorns.  The first group of cows we visited were up on the hill, so Rhid went up to find them & bring them down to us.  Soon they all came running down the hill to meet us.  What a lovely herd. 

One of Lewis' very nice short-leg cows.

The cows we saw in Wales, for the most part, seemed beefier than most I’ve seen in the States.  We also didn’t see any of the really bad udders like we see so often on American cows.  Seeing Rhid & Judy’s cows, we also learned that there’s a significant, noticeable difference between what they call short-leg and long-leg, and the short-legs aren’t all necessarily chondro-carriers.  Their short-legs are a bit shorter than most smaller, normal cows in the US, and their long-legs are quite tall.  Judy explained that they feel the chondro-carriers are generally distinguishable from non-carriers because their body length is shorter and their head & shoulders look too big for their front legs.

A nicely built red cow.

At one point Judy mentioned a cow which they had sold because she was a bit “stroppy”.  We had encountered this word at the Royal Welsh, and asked now about its meaning.  She explained that a stroppy cow was an obstinate, or uncooperative cow….not something you want to be milking.

L to R: Judy, Jeff, Jacqi, Ken & Rhid talking about the cows.

As we made our way from one pasture paddock to the next, we noticed the nice hedgerows they had.  Rhid explained that they were participating in a government program through which they get a subsidy for maintaining their farm in the “old way” with the hedgerows between pastures.  He seemed quite pleased to be able to keep his animals in such a natural environment, even though putting in double rows of fence with shrubs in between was an expensive endeavor.  The result is definitely lovely, though.

Two Welsh farmers talking under an ancient tree.

After seeing all the cows, we made our way to the barn to see their two bulls. 

Rhid & his bilingual bull.

At this point they have two young bulls that they’ve raised out of their own herd.  Rhid was standing there by the one bull, speaking softly in Welsh to it.  When asked if the bull was bilingual, he answered, “Of course, they must be.  I must curse at them in English.  There are no curse words in Welsh.”

Then we gathered in the kitchen to warm up & dry off by the oven with some tea & Welsh cakes, a very yummy discovery.  Soon it was time to head back to Ken & Jacqi’s home.  We stopped by Aberaeron, a beautiful little harbor town, on the way, and got some quick photos in the rain.  We got back to Penuwch with time to visit  a little longer before we had to leave to find some supper at a decent hour.

Pictures in the rain: a typical funny face by Ken!

Saying goodbye to Jenny & Lower Fishpools.

We got back to the Cottage with some time to pack things together for our departure in the morning.  After one last night at Lower Fishpools Cottage, we were off on another pretty drive across the countryside of Wales & England to the Bristol airport to catch our flight to our final destination, Ireland.

The line up of "coloured horses".

We arrived in Wales late Sunday, July 18.  After a good night’s sleep & a breakfast too big for either of us to finish, it was off to the Royal Welsh Show, which is supposed to be one of the biggest agricultural shows in the world.  It was definitely more than we could possibly see in one day.  

I'm not used to seeing that kind of butt on a cow!

Things to See

Upon entering the showgrounds, we first found the horse ring, where they were judging spotted Welsh cobs.  It was an impressive & beautiful line-up.  Then we headed for the cattle barns, but since showing was in progress, we couldn’t go in.  So we stood outside awhile, watching the comings & goings of some breeds that were new to us, like the Welsh Black which looked like giant, black, wooly teddy bears, and British Blue which were shaped more like hogs than cows.

The sheep shearing competition.

 After a while we decided to go see the sheep & the shearing competition.  Well, the Welsh are big on sheep, and they have so many different breeds that we had never heard of, but the sheep themselves weren’t as interesting as the shearing competition.  There were teams from different countries competing.  Each team member had three sheep to shear, going as fast as possible without nicking the poor critters too many times…and all with a hand shears, not electric clippers!

An amazing stunt by the Dancing Diggers.

 Throughout the day, there was also plenty of entertainment.  We got to see the JCB Dancing Diggers: yes, guys driving backhoes in a routine choreographed to music, Meirion Owen & the Quack Pack: he has a Border Collie herd his ducks through an obstacle course, and, most impressive to me, the Chariots of Fire Display Team. 

Getting ready to jump with two ponies.

Horsewoman Amanda Saville has many rescue ponies that she has trained as stunt driving ponies.  It was amazing to see the trust between her & these ponies.  The ponies would go over a jump with ramps on the edges which would send her chariot airborne, with Amanda giving exuberant commentary throughout. 

Now, over the jumps with four.

 After jumping with a pair, she then added two more, single-file out in front with reins only – they had no traces attaching them to the cart.  Following that impressive showing, Amanda brought out her “old faithful”, Mad Mac, the fearless fire specialist, who takes on the fiery obstacles.  It was quite amazing.

Mad Mac goes over & through the fire with ease.

There was much more that we simply didn’t have time to see.  Of course, walking between venues, we made an interesting observation of Welsh fashion.  

An interesting fashion statement.

Apparently, shorts or a skirt, with leggings & brightly colored wellies is quite popular attire in Wales.  I’m not sure if that one will ever catch on anywhere else.  It was a busy, but very fun day.  And of course, our entire reason for going was to see the Dexter show.

Dexters on Display

I had hoped, with the Royal Welsh being such a big event, that we would get to see many representatives of the breed in Britain.  Therefore, I was quite disappointed to find that only a handful of breeders brought a few animals each to show.  We found out later on Tuesday that many local breeders chose not to attend because of difficult, expensive regulation issues.  But we did get to talk to some of the breeders that were there.

In the center: a lovely red cow that was my choice for first place.

The first place Dexter bull.

There were some very nice animals presented, mostly very short and quite beefy.  The first place bull was a fabulous fellow, however I found that I disagreed strongly with the judge’s idea of a winning cow.  He didn’t seem to consider udder conformation at all and passed over a perfectly beautiful red cow with lovely udder conformation for a beefier cow with a really poor udder.  What a disappointment, not only for me, but for the owner of the red cow who had to settle for second place.

After a long day of activity, it was good to get back to the comfort of Lower Fishpools Cottage for a night’s rest before heading off on the next day’s adventure, which I’ll relate next week.  See ya’ then!

           -UK Vacation continued

Classic Herd Farm Shop

Saying hello to Classic calves, store building in the background.

Our final visit on the Isle of Jersey was Friday evening at the Classic Herd, owned by Darren & Julie Quenault.  We were sent their way by our very talkative & entertaining hostess Victoria, who likes to buy their dairy products as often as she can.  She said the other breeders on the island view Darren as a bit of a renegade, because he has chosen to not sell through the RJ dairy board, but sells all the farm products directly to the consumer at their Farm Store.

A view of the herd on pasture.

We showed up at the farm right around evening milking time and first snooped through the store checking out all the wonderful goodies.  We asked around a bit, and were finally pointed to Julie, who was able to round up Darren to show us the herd.  He’s a very nice, down-to-earth dairy farmer with an intentional, thought-out, pragmatic approach to what he’s doing.  He has come to grips with the fact that he’s the outsider, but is doing what he believes in. When we mentioned that we had met Derrick at the LeFeuvre’s, he commented that he “definitely wouldn’t have been invited to that”.

A very nice looking young cow.

He has gone to organic production, with his cows being mainly grass-fed, plus some silage, and he’s trying to avoid having to buy in large quantities of feed. 

After finishing their milk buckets, these two heifers started licking off each other's chins.

He has 60 cows, and admits that his production is lower than it would be with conventional methods & a larger herd, but he feels he has as many cows as his current pasture will support.  He was able to give us some good breeding tips & what to look for in good conformation when buying.

A closer view of the castle as we leave St. Helier by ferry.

Planes, Trains and….the Ferry 

Saturday morning we had breakfast, packed up & said good-bye to Sarah & Victoria, and headed down to the harbor at St. Helier for our travel day.  We took the fast ferry to Poole, England, which only took about 4 hrs. compared to the overnight, slow ferry.  It had a couple decks for cars, and a couple for people.  We ended up on the upper level with the nice seating. 

The harbor on Guernsey.

It was a rather nice trip across the channel, with a stop at Guernsey to let some people off & some new passengers on. 

This big boat leaves quite a wake.

After landing in Poole,  we took a cab to the train station and continued on to London by rail.  We checked in at The Mad Hatter Hotel then went downstairs to the Pie & Ale restaurant for a wonderful dinner.  Being exhausted at this point and finding cities quite distasteful, I was quite happy to go to bed early and see nothing more in London than the backs of my eyelids!

Sunday Best

Our first view of England - almost there!

We slept in Sunday morning, then meandered by foot & bus (yes, double decker) across London to the Old Dominion Theatre.  It’s a working live theater through the week, but on Sunday, Hillsong Church London meets there for their 4 services.  We arrived in time for the 1:00 service.  WOW!!  They’re big on technology, yes, but what amazed me the most was how quickly I was swept into the presence of God, and surprised by the intensity of the sorrow & longing – I miss this!  All I could do was weep the whole way through the worship.

The worship at Hillsong was amazing.

After the sevice, I ended up waiting for Jeff near the “Connection Point”, while he went to the “loo”.  I was very soon greeted & “accosted” by Debbie.  She invited us to join her & her husband Neil for lunch, which we did.

Sunday morning in front of the Old Dominion.

  We all went to the shop down the street & bought sandwiches & stuff for lunch, then walked to the park.  There were groups from the church scattered all over the lawn, fellowshipping & eating.  We had a nice chat, but of course, they brought up the subject of our home church.  So, we ended up sharing some of our pain & disappointment with these complete, but caring, strangers.

Lunch in the park with Hillsong members.

Early evening, we finally got to the airport to fetch a rental car and set off across the countryside.  It was a beautiful drive, and we arrived late in Bledffa, Wales at our next lovely little B&B, Lower Fishpools Cottage.  Owner/hostess Jenny was still up to meet us & settle us in for the next part of our adventure.

But I’ll tell you about our time in Wales next week.

After a glorious vacation in the UK, we’re finally back in our sweet Kentucky home and over the jet-lag (I think).  So now it’s time to share the fun, the photos, and what we learned.  There’s a lot to write about, so I’ll probably end up with weekly posts through this month.  Hope you enjoy!

A beautiful, welcoming front gate.

Where We Went

We flew to Jersey on Wednesday, July 14, and upon landing & procuring our little rental VW bug, we found our way to our B&B, Villa d’Oro.  It’s a lovely place with wonderful hostesses, Victoria & Sarah, and great food.

A pool and garden to enjoy out back.

 
Jeff called his contact at the Royal Jersey Agricultural & Horticultural Society (commonly known by the locals as “the RJ”) to find out what he had planned for us.  We were given an immediate invitation: there was to be a group farm visit that evening at John & Sarah LeFeuvre’s.  Afterwards, the whole gang went out for drinks & dinner.  The following day, we went to the RJ and met David, who gave us a lot of great information and suggested a visit with Frank Cudlipp, which we were able to arrange for Friday.  Lastly, we also visited the Classic Herd Farm Store, owned & run by Darren & Julie Quenault.

A typical narrow Jersey road, with rock walls on both sides.

What We Saw

In between our Jersey cow visits, we tootled around the island, visiting St. Helier, St. Brelade and the Jersey Lavender farm. We also made time for a couple strolls along the beautiful beaches.  Since the entire island is only about 9 miles long by 5 miles wide, it’s not exactly easy to get lost.  The roads were terribly narrow, and in the towns usually have rock walls right on the edge – not much elbow room!  And, of course, they drive on the wrong side of the road, which took some getting used to.  We usually ended up back at Villa d’Oro in the afternoons for tea and some interesting conversations with Victoria about Jersey culture.

A field of lavender in bloom awaiting cutting.

Friday we had an interesting visit at Jersey Lavender.  We ate lunch in their little cafe then went on the tour of the distillery.

Sea wall at the beach.

They grow & cut their own lavender, and have two small units to distill the oil.  The oil is aged to develop the wonderful lavender scent we know (it smells hideous when it’s fresh!) then they use it to mix up their own products, which are mostly bottled & labeled right there on the farm.  And, of course, we saw lots of lovely Jersey cows, which was the whole point.

What We Learned

This part of the trip was probably the most educational of all.  With the American Miniature Jersey Association’s information about the breed saying that the miniature size was the original, I wanted to learn more about the breed in it’s original form.  And learn I did!

A curious cow with the LeFeuvre farm buildings in the background.

Upon finding John LeFeuvre’s farm and making introductions, Jeff & I gave each other a look that said, “Yes, we have just stepped into a James Herriot book!”  There was a whole group of breeders gathered to see their herd.  As we walked through the pasture & listened to Sarah tell about the cows, I became puzzled by what I was seeing.

Sarah pointing out a particular cow.

These cows were not mini-sized, they were uniformly between 44″-48″.  I eventually caught up with Derrick Frigot, who right from the start had seemed quite friendly, knowledgable & easy to talk to.  I asked him about it, mentioning the AMJAR propaganda that the mini is the original and the full size were bred up.  He gave me a response that was repeated by every single person we met & asked about it over the course of our stay on the Isle: scoffing, rolled eyes, and “That’s nonsense.”, “Rubbish!”, or “Oh, please!”.  These Island cows are what the original Jersey cow has always been.  They’ve had a protected, closed gene pool for over 200 years, so little has changed in the breed.

John LeFeuvre and a friendly cow.

 
Most of these guys have been to the States and have seen American Jersey cows.  They all seem to feel that the American “full size” cows are only a few inches taller than what they have on the Isle.  And they were all quite adamant that the Isle Jerseys were never as small as the Miniatures.  So now, I obviously wonder, where did that mini size actually come from?  And I’m rethinking my Jersey breeding plans.

Precious little Primrose: a couple fingers to suckle & she was ready to come home with me!

While talking with Derrick about some old imported Isle semen I bought, we found out that he was the one doing the semen collection at that time and he not only knew all those bulls, but actually owned Margarethe’s Dairyman.  These breeders all know all the bulls and the traits that they stamp on their offspring, so now I know what I have in my straw collection & can use it wisely.

Frank's cows are quite fond of him.

Our Friday morning visit with Frank & Valerie Cudlipp was an intriguing step into history.  He’s 80 years old & still doing things “the old way”.  He and daughter Sarah have about 20 cows, but he fusses that he only actually owns one of them.
He still keeps the cows tethered the way all of them on the Isle used to be, with a rope clipped onto a chain loop around their horns.  So, unlike the other breeders who disbud their calves, his cows all still have their horns.  He showed us how they used to get a cow’s horns to curve in nicely by cutting a few little chips off the back side of the horns a few times when they were young.

Cows were all kept tethered by their horns.

This brings me to another Miniature Jersey “myth” I’ve heard: that all mini Jerseys are polled.

Frank demonstrates trimming this heifer's horns to curve them.

 All the Isle of Jersey cows have always been horned – they had to be to be tethered.  The extremely rare, occassional naturally polled animal was looked askance at & suspected to be mixed breed.  I’ve seen mini Jerseys with horns, too, though, so I didn’t think that was true, but if they’re supposed to be the original, then how would any of them be polled?  

80 years old and still swinging strong!

Frank uses the traditional large homemade wooden mallets to hammer the metal spikes into the ground to anchor the rope.  He also still stitches together his own homemade blankets to keep his girls cozy in winter. 

Frank introduces me to this lovely spotted cow.

He told us that in the old days the skinnier, bonier cow was considered best, because “it all goes in the pail”.  But nowadays, they’re breeding better-fleshed cows, which he thinks is good because they do better in cold weather, even if they don’t produce quite as much milk.

What an experience!  Tune in next week for more!