HORSE RIDING & HAY-ON-WYE

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Hi Friends and Family,

Its time to go horse-riding. Yeah, you heard me!

It HAS been a while. The last time I did a horse trek was in 2001.

In the Dominican Republic.

With a couple of local cowboys!

I don’t have any pictures though ‘cos during the gentle trot, my horse decided to gallop away into the sunset.

I was sooooo SCARED and unfortunately, my constant kicking at the heels only made the horse go faster.

Oh my goodness.

Well, I lived to tell the tale but have no video recollections and definitely no photos of the event. Cue 2010. This time, it was gonna be different. This time I booked with a respectable riding establishment recommended by the Brecon Beacons National Park.

I chose LLANTHONY RIDING AND TREKKING. www.llanthony.co.uk

Based at Court Farm next to the Llanthony Priory, the riding school is on the eastern edge of the Brecon Beacons where there is a wide choice of riding with routes and horses to suit all abilities including trekking and hacking. We were on a Trekking Course.

The Half Day morning ride would consist of safety and horse-riding procedures and a quiet ride in a small group of complete beginners ( My Boyz! ) and less confident riders ( Moi ) - walking, gentle trotting and a chance to canter if one chose.

We paid £28 each as adults and “The Small Young Gentleman” paid £20 and so we were saddled up and provided with hats before we rode away.

It was a lovely two-hour ride and it was steaming hot weather-wise. We were accompanied by three friendly, qualified guides and Brioni in particular was really nice and chatty. We rode on tiny little dirt paths, went deep into the valley, climbed through farmland, brambles, down stony hills, on cow pats, in small brooks and across forest tracks leading to the top and into miles of open moorland.

I loved the gentle “walk” and felt enormously proud to be the commander of such a beast and although my horse - Troy- was kind to me and co-operative, he spent many a time, ignoring my instructions and attempting to have his lunch at my expense by generally just chewing every branch and flower in sight!

The part I most disliked was the “trotting”.

Most horses’ canter which is a controlled, three-beat gait. It is a natural gait possessed by all horses, faster than most horses' trot but slower than the gallop, and is used by all riders.

Our trek was that of “walking” and trotting and there are three ways the trot may be ridden one of which is rising or posting.

Rising or Posting is when the rider makes an up and down movement with each stride, rising out of the saddle for one beat, and lowers (sits) for the second beat. When the rising trot is performed correctly, it is comfortable for the rider and easy on the horse. This is the preferred stance for show jumping, hunt seat, eventing (the jumping phases), saddle seat, lower-level dressage, and most other English-type riding as well as endurance riding although this does not provide as much control as sitting, it frees the horse's back.

In the rising trot, the rider allows the horse's movement to throw his or her seat a bit out of the saddle. When coming back down, the seat touches down lightly rather than slamming down on the horse's back.

Except in Saddle seat riding, rider's shoulders maintain a slight forward incline throughout the rising trot, instead of the upright, vertical position seen in sitting trot. The shoulders and lower legs remain in relatively the same position when the rider is both rising and sitting and the hands also stay in the same position as the rider rises and sits.

I have to say that rather than touching down lightly, my bum was as sore as anything as all I felt was constant hard bumping in a somewhat rather delicate area.

I was glad when the “gentle” trotting was over!

Anyway, we all had a lot of fun and I would highly recommend horse trekking in The Black Mountains of Wales.

Shortly after, the trek was over and we had our lunch break at the Llanthony Priory which is just a footstep away.

Llanthony Priory is a partly ruined former Augustinian priory in the secluded Vale of Ewyas, a steep sided once glaciated valley within the Black Mountains area of the Brecon Beacons. It lies seven miles north of Abergavenny on an old road to Hay on Wye at Llanthony. The main ruins are under the care of Cadw and entrance is free.

Llanthony Priory was one of the earliest houses of Augustinian canons to be founded in Britain, and is one of only a handful in Wales. It is chiefly famous today for its wild and beautiful setting.

It was the priory's remoteness in the Welsh hills which was its undoing however, making it vulnerable to attack. Giraldus Cambrensis described it, in the late 12th century, as being 'fixed amongst a barbarous people'.

William de Lacy, a knight in the service of Hugh de Lacy, is said to have chosen the spot while out hunting, when he sheltered in a chapel there dedicated to St David. Very quickly a church was established. Dedicated to John the Baptist, it was reorganized as a priory in about 1118.

Hugh de Lacy, who had assumed the patronage, endowed it with land, and it soon became famous, enjoyed royal patronage and received many visitors.

The priory's church, built between 1180 and 1230, was one of the great medieval buildings of Wales and the size and remaining details of the church show that the builders were both wealthy and sophisticated.

Eighteenth-century travellers in search of the picturesque were lucky enough to see the east and west window tracery still in place, and in 1803, Sir Richard Colt Hoare actually witnessed the great west window fall.

Little remains of the cloistral buildings of the priory, and some have been much altered by conversion into a house and later a hotel, a parish church and farm buildings. What remains there dates from the first quarter of the 13th century. To the south of the nave, where there is now an open lawn, were the cloisters.

After the great rebuilding the fortunes of the abbey continued to see-saw, with most of the monks eventually retreating to Gloucester, especially after the devastation caused by Owain Glyndwr's rebellion at the beginning of the 15th century. By 1504 there were only four canons left. After the Dissolution the site was sold for about £160, and was left to decay.

The Priory was great to play around in though and the weather was gorgeous. Just gorgeous.

In Wales. Who knew!

I was expecting rain and lots of it too but we were so darn lucky mate!

The place was packed with lunch-makers indoor and out and lots and lots of artists who were drawing their view of this beautiful ruin, but soon it was time to go.

And wherefore kind sir?

Why to Hay-on-Wye that’s why?

Ah, Hay-on-Wye.

Hay-on-Wye ladies and gentlemen, for people like us, is a land of paradise.

A land of books. Lots n’ lots of second-hand and specialist books!

We were in sheep country so it was always necessary to drive carefully and slowly because although Wales has a population of about three million people, it is a most romantic and picturesque country with mountains and valleys both interesting and visually pleasing although in ages past the more mountainous parts of Wales were regarded as wild landscapes, monstrous and ugly.

Wales lacks a large metropolitan centre and most of the country, except South-East Wales, is sparsely populated. The lack of high value-added employment in sectors such as finance and research and development is attributable in part to a comparative lack of a viable population.

Due to the poor quality of soil, much of Wales is unsuitable for crop-growing, and livestock farming has traditionally been the focus of agriculture and the protection of the Welsh landscape, thus sheep.

Lots and lots of sheep which is an especially vital role in the economy of rural areas, cows and horses.

Hay-on-Wye (Welsh: Y Gelli Gandryll or Y Gelli), is often described as "the town of books" and is a small place in Powys, Wales.

The town lies on the east bank of the River Wye and is also within the Brecon Beacons National Park, just north of the Black Mountains situated just within the Welsh side of the border with Herefordshire in England.

Hay-on-Wye has approximately 1,900 inhabitants. The nearest city is Hereford, county town of Herefordshire in England, some 22 miles (35 km) to the east!

Since 1988, Hay-on-Wye has been the venue for a literary festival, now sponsored by my favourite newspaper: The Guardian, which attracts about 80,000 visitors over ten days at the beginning of June to see and hear big literary names from all over the world.

I’d been to Hay-on-Wye in 1996 where I had bought some specialists books so I was very eager to go back again and “The Small Young Gentleman” was delighted with the fact that he could have lots more books and even better, comic Annuals of “Dandy” and “Beano” from the 1970’s and 80’s and at between the prices of 25p and £1, was not to be denied!

I, of course, bought classic books of literary value and some from my favourite authors like Catherine Cookson!

Oh yes, least I forget, Hay Castle.

Long ago, when Hay-on-Wye, was a rather non-descript farming village with a jumble of raggedy cottages and a struggling economy, British eccentric Richard Booth decided that he "rather felt like having a castle."

So, in 1961, he bought it!

Back then, it was a wreck of a place, the thirteenth century tower was crumbling, the roof was in ruins, and the adjoining Jacobean mansion was in complete disrepair.

Today, Hay-on-Wye is a thriving world center for dealers of used and antiquarian books and as for Richard Booth?

On 1st April 1977, bibliophile Richard George William Pitt Booth put on a crown, declared Hay-on-Wye to be an 'independent kingdom' with himself as its king, and gave the position of prime minister to his horse!

This publicity stunt put Hay-on-Wye on the map and subsequently developed a healthy tourism industry based on literary interests.

Hay Castle is not merely a historic monument but a centerpiece for the world-famous Literature Festival and a place of experimentation.

Indeed, all the books you can see are left out in the open for tourists and customers to see and leaf through. It uses the honest system that if you find a book you like simply put 50p for a paperback and £1 for a hardback, in the red box and take it with you.

You can also leave books there too. No scowling assistants. No questions asked. No sale pitches!

Not too long after, it was time to have scones, jam and clotted cream and back home to Bwlch.

See you on the 'morrow!

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