Saturday dawned clear and sunny after a wet Friday evening that brought the harvest to a halt, not be any combine action today, but i was still out and about anyway and decided to follow Francis`s crewing truck, she was riding the 80km Ride today with Tessa, it was a mass start and they were off!...
Horses looked keen to go but riders pacing themselves...
I headed to the first crew stop and took in yesterdays harvested fields, ground was a bit soft after the heavy rain but was good to crunch stubble again on the 29+ bike!...
The beast sleeps..
Riders came into view at Fenton Tower...
Horses get `sloshed` to cool them...
Road dash next to Seacliff, should have been riding the Dawes road bike today!, but i was riding my favourite bike so not complaining!...
Riders and horses get a drink, then their off...
Blast down the road to Whitekirk and the next crew point at Tyninghame...
Whitekirk Tithe Barn is still for sale... not cheap!...
Never seen these before. seems it`s a scarce moth in Scotland; Link... must be a wee home for them....
Here they come...
Now back to the venue and off road via Binning Woods and tracks...Big wheels, big sky...
The horses started to catch me at Craig wood before they turned off...
And first Vet check...
Harry is my favourite of F's horses, he is an Australian Stock Horse, real friendly, and he has one eye!, F saved him from being destroyed and has turned him around, a future wee star...
Food time for horses and us!...
Another 16km loop and it was a racing finish having nearly caught the leader all day, Francis finished 3rd, Tessa second...
The heaven's opened as the horses passed vetting, and i rode home and typical just after i got home the rain went off! lol,
Saturday summer evening, Cycling, Cider, Cheesecake, Sunset...
Cannot beat it :)
Sunday;
I crewed today for F who was riding solo and doing a 40km ride again on Harry...
Mowgli looked a bit huffed to be spending the day in the car and not running wild!... :(
Lol!...
Old fabric conditioner bottles for sloshing, these would be filled again for today with a quick stop at the farm tap...
Off she goes...
Another 3 crew points for more water to cool Harry...
Becky`s Strip Byway...
Lol look at the faces! :)
And the finish...
Despite loads of sponging with water Harry was vetted out with too high a heart rate, a shame after a busy day, but i guess that`s part of competing, and it would not be as much of a challenge if every rider and horse finished. Harry is a great wee horse, and as said he was going to be destroyed, hard to believe...
Combine fired up late afternoon...
Be a couple of hours before the rain came on again!, been the story of the weather for the last two weeks and my summer holidays, oh well, loads of good weather still to come and harvest scenery...
More soon...
No comments:
Post a Comment