Hairy Henry

Lots and lots of pictures of Skye and me at Bantry Agricultural Show , thanks to our personal photographer for the day, Christine 🫶 What lovely memories! It's been 3 years since I took Skye to this show, only just backed, and very green. And little dis we know of all the things ahead of us then. But after sitting her entire 2025 season out due to injury, we made a very exciting and enjoyable come back this year, with great progress and a few successes, and are finishing on a definite high now with this show being the last for the season.
Roll on 2027 😆

And a first for Trudi in the Terrier Class at Bantry Agricultural Show Dog Show 🎀
In true Airedale Terrier fashion, she got a bit bored after walking around the ring a few times, and sniffed here and looked there, more interested in making new friends in the audience than impressing the judge 🙈 but oh, when she was handed her ribbon, she sat and smiled and basked in the applause, and I had a hard time convincing her that it was time to leave the ring and her showtime was over...she only started showing off at that point 🤣

And Skye kept on shining...third in Family Horse Class!

A good start to Bantry Agricultural Show
Second in Heavy Weight Hunter 💙
Very encouraging and complimentary comments from the Judge. Turns out she needs more weight on her to place even better - sure she likes the sound of what that might mean for her mealtimes!
Thanks to Christine and Suki, my grooms for the day, so much easier with a few more busy helping hands, especially in the heavy showers we are having.....

Noooooo 😱
Owners of greys can relate, especially on show morning 🥲

Big Skye pampering session this evening ahead of Bantry Agricultural Show
Thanks to excellent help from Christine and Suki we had her sparkle in no time and tucked her in early. Dawn start for me tomorrow to get her mane done. I tell you, about 10x more hours (and money) go into enhancing this mare's beauty than I ever spent in my entire life on myself 🤣

Lovely to have all youngsters at home, with their mammy, and in Frieda 's case her granny. They will be looked after well here while I am away from next week on our fundraiser ride.
But the emptiness of the fields is utterly frightening, I just prepared some hay bales and the feeder to top up on the very sparse grass.

Now that our departure for this year's leg of our fundraiser ride along the Wild Atlantic Way draws closer, I had to look up our last trip to Connemara 9 year's ago. What a journey that was, dear Henry and Flora did great. We've grown and learned a lot since, but we still have some very fond memories of this journey.
Sadly, these guided rides don't take place any longer since W***y Leahy passed. It was a great way to explore a beautiful area with the support of an experienced trail rider.
This year, it'll be just Skye, Turnip and me, and a heap of maps to find our way.

Rocks And Bogs – Five Days Horse-Back Riding Through Connemara Connemara is half way up the west side of Ireland. It's a land of r...

Yes we can 😃🦄
After our show jumping attempts which left me feeling a bit gutted (feeling more positive now as I had a good look at the clip and really helpful feedback from some of you dear followers) Skye didn't seem to be bothered one bit by being eliminated, and to finish off on a more positive note, we sailed through the cross country course which felt great, Skye did a smooth round and wasn't even sweated up or breathless, plenty energy left, which shows our fitness training is paying off.
Thanks to Horse Sport Images for capturing us so well, and to all organisers and everyone from South West Riding Club who helped make the day happen, it was a lot if work but so well run and overall a great outing.