Schoolchildren for Children - The Video!

It must always be remembered that one of the main reasons for the Long Horse Ride is to raise money for disadvantaged children via the charity Schoolchildren for Children.http://www.schoolchildrenforchildren.org/
It is now possible to view a video about the aims and achievements of the charity on Youtube. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtxrUKt1558

If you have enjoyed this blog, and/or been moved by the issues and heartrending stories depicted in the video, please support the ride and this very worthy cause by donating to my page at http://www.justgiving.com/meganlonghorseride

ALL monies raised by the ride go directly to the projects supported as all administration costs are covered by separate sponsorship, so please give generously.

Goodbye Tiger, Hello Rabbit.

Chinese New Year has come and gone, as has the end of 2010, and hopefully the Year of the Rabbit 2011 will hop along without too many traumas.

The children celebrated our New Year with a fancy dress party - theme 'Around the World' - which gave me an excuse to dig out various items of clothing I acquired while on the North West Frontier (if you want to see photos of this 2006 trip, see http://www.cwrtycadno.com/mypics.htm towards the bottom of the page)

Iestyn and me in sartorial splendour as Afghan mujahideen and spouse - the latter apparently held at gunpoint in his harem. Fortunately we live in a more enlightened society in Wales, so here we are again in more relaxed mode.

We were all issued with passports which were checked at the door by airline stewardess Gwenny before a fun packed evening of quizzes, tequila shots, bonfires and singing round the piano.

Shay and our sheep dog Dyfi carousing the night away with a couple of bottles of champers - Dyfi looks decidedly the worse for wear.

Guess the country -

There might be a clue here - And of course it all followed a White Christmas

which meant an obigatory sledging session after Christmas dinner -

A novel way for brothers in law to bond - Iestyn and Russell in full? flight Dyfi equipped for the ski slopes, but doubting if dogs are really meant to do this.

Poppy fields in the Land of Oz

Still way behind with my blog posts! My latest excuse is that I have been waiting in vain for requested photos of the Supreme Championship at the Victoria All Welsh show. These were taken during my judging trip to Australia at the beginning of December. I had a busy three days at the show judging a wide variety of ponies and cobs both in hand and ridden, before visiting the famous Nawarrah Park and Weston Park studs where I saw some wonderful cobs and ponies - here I am with Janet Evans at Weston Park.
The next few days were spent with friends Chris and Janet Murphy on their Welsh pony stud in lovely country near Canberra. http://keyiwelshponies.com/. They own the young colt Pontsteffan Simwnt, by our stallion Cwrtycadno Cymro - he flew out to Australia in 2009, and has just produced his first foal to everyone's excitement - here is said foal with proud father looking on. The following weekend I flew over to judge at the Tasmania Welsh show. As my co judge Kathy Sheil of the Dukeshill stud had unfortunately fallen ill at the last moment, I ended up judging all the classes which made for a challenging day. I was very taken by Tasmania and a bit sad that I had had to cut short my trip - fortuitously as it turned out, as I just missed the Heathrow closures caused by snow! I had a most enjoyable and relaxing stay with Welsh pony breeder Tina Taylor of the Nattai River stud http://www.nattairiver.com/ and her husband David, who runs a large sheep station near Campbelltown. Tina's grandfather and mother were responsible for early imports of Welsh ponies to Australia. Here are Tina and David in front of their delightful home which is set in the middle of a beautiful garden. Some farmland is given over to the remunerative crop shown below

If you don't recognise it, it is opium, which they produce under licence for medicinal purposes, e.g. for codeine!

I was also delighted to receive my second Australian sponsorship from Welsh cob enthusiast Sabina, who has provided me with an Acu-light http://www.acu-light.com.au/ . This heals injury and relieves pain by applying laser light to acupoints in both humans and horses. I am sure it will be an invaluable resource in the months to come.
Here are Janet (left) and Sabina (right) at Gundegai in front of the monument to the Dog on the Tucker Box which we passed en route to Janet's home.

I was very chuffed to visit it, as the last time I did was when my family spent some time driving round Australia nearly 50 years ago after my father retired from the Malaysian Education Service. In those days it was stuck by itself at the side of the road, whereas now it is surrounded by gardens and merits a visitors centre. If you want to know the story of the Dog click here.

Braving the potholes

It is some time since I wrote on my blog, and I will attempt to bring it up to date!
After reaching Kyzlorda at the end of October, and settling Zorbee in his winter home, I drove to Atyrau to catch my flight home. This was about another 1000miles/3 days drive, and I was very glad to have the company of cousin Rowena, who lives in Atyrau but came down on the train to join up with me.
The first part of the drive was along the new M3 to Aktobe, which is part of the planned trans Asia expressway system - as you can see, it is pretty whizzy - but unfortunately stretches like this do not last for long .......

....and it is soon back to the earth tracks running parallel to the road under construction.

It gradually became clear that the jeep was suffering some sort of radiator problem, but we fortuitously came across a water truck which enabled us to replenish the water. The truck driver is evidently most amused by our antics - the Kazakhs are used to expatriot oil men roaring past in brand new BMW or Suzuki 4x4s, and found the concept of two unaccompanied foreign ladies of a certain age tootling across the steppe in a clapped out Lada eccentric to say the least.

We plugged on for another couple of hundred miles to the next small one horse town in the middle of nowhere, where we managed to track down a back street garage. The mechanics below sorted out the problem while we resisted offers of betrothal to the one eyed Romeo on the right - they did not seem too concerned that we already had husbands. But he made an impressive job of personally blowing out the air lock which was causing the trouble.

On the third day we followed the A340 from the bright lights of modern Aktobe to the bustling oil city of Atyrau. One would imagine that there would be a fast and well maintained expressway linking two such major Kazakhstan urban centres, but we were soon to discover otherwise. For over 200 miles we were unable to drive faster than 20mph, the reasons being obvious if you look at the photos below. The potholes could easily swallow a small juggernaut and it was a toss up whether to drive around or through them. You may be wondering why the Lada lights are on - in Kazakhstan it is illegal to drive outside towns without headlights even during the day. Not such a bad idea when you see the speed at which traffic travels along narrow and bumpy roads. Not that there was much traffic here.

The alternative (if it is not during the thaw) is to drive along the maze of earth tracks at the side.

A desolate view looking west along the A340 to Atyrau as dusk starts to fall. With the Lada playing up and the night temperatures below freezing, it was not an occasion when one wanted to break down, but at least we were equipped with tents and sleeping bags if the worst had come to the worst.

1000 miles across Kazakhstan

I am woefully behind with my posts due to one thing and another, so the first thing to say is that on Monday October 11th, in spite of all my earlier setbacks, I successfully reached my 2010 aim of Kyzlorda. The following day I rode Zorbee on to his winter quarters at Terenozek, 50 kms further along my route. This not only means I have ridden 1000 miles from the Chinese border, but it puts me about halfway across Kazakhstan and nearly halfway to London!
Being Kazakhstan, I suppose it was inevitable that we would not finish without a parting setback, and so it proved. Bakhram had not realised his registration papers were out of date, and he was detained and served with a deportation order by the immigration police. He spent a miserable night locked up in a detention room with a variety of offenders, and was only let out late the following evening after his court appearance. It was not so much of a problem for me as it was the penultimate day of riding and the wonderful Sandy Moir, who is the British embassy 'warden' for the Kyzlorda area, came to my rescue, sorting out overnight accomodation for Zorbee outside Kyzlorda and fetching me in his car.
However it was not such good news for Bakhram as it means he will not be allowed back into Kazakhstan for 5 years. This is what a Kazakhstan deportation stamp looks like ....


Sandy also provided me with a fantastic flat with all mod cons, although after over a week on the road it was the hot shower which was my priority! Here we are in the kitchen...

The last week's riding across the flat steppe was somewhat monotonous and I went through my whole limited repertoire of songs including nursery rhymes ...


though occasionally there was a subtle change of scenery ....


The big excitement was seeing the great Syr Darya or Jaxartes for the first time. Here is Zorbee perusing it from a bridge over an irrigation watercourse leading off the main river. Pony Club children please note this is a demonstration of how NOT to tie up a horse. Zorbee is wintering with Ahmed Davletpayeva, the parent of one of Sandy's Kazakh interpreters - here I am with Ahmed and his wife outside their typical Kazakh house at Terenozek. You may just be able to see Zorbee in a pen at the back of the yard behind us.

Donkey Work

I often dismount and lead Zorbee to give both of us a change and a rest. In Asia people can never comprehend why one would possibly want to walk on foot when one has a perfectly good horse to ride, and as a result I often get strange looks - although of course this may be for other reasons!

For my part I can never understand how very large men can possibly be comfortable riding on very small donkeys, when they are in possession of perfectly good legs which nearly reach the ground in any case - and if they have a donkey they will not walk even a step.

Above - herdsman Talgat who invited me to join him for chai near Shayan.

As in many other parts of the world, donkeys are expected to work like, well, donkeys. The photo above gives a new meaning to the phrase 'Ride and Drive' and is a fairly common sight though usually not with such a lump on board.

Surely it would be easier just to pull the cart oneself?

This self possessed little boy was better suited to his mount than some ofthe examples above. He must have only been about 6 years old, but armed with plastic bag on stick, he was in sole charge of a large flock of about 200 sheep and goats.

Seeing Sauran

Tuesday 5th October

On our day off in Turkestan I was eager to visit the ancient ruined oasis city of Otrar, which lies about 50 miles to the south. In 1217 it was the somewhat ill considered decision of its governor Inalchuk to arrest merchants sent by Genghis Khan on spying charges, the situation being exacerbated when they were subsequently put to death - not good thinking. This suidical action precipitated Genghis Khan's swift conquest of the lands of the Korezmshahs which included this southern area of present day Kazakhstan - Inalchuk was executed and Otrar razed to the ground. Having recovered from this setback, it later achieved notoriety as the place where Timur died of fever.
But unfortunately due to our other activities we did not have time to make the 100 mile round trip there.

So after a day's riding across the flat desert steppe land of the Syr Darya valley it was a great excitement to see the crumbling walls of the old Silk Road city of Sauran rising up in the distance. Sauran escaped the fate of Otrar by wisely surrendering to the forces of Genghis Khan without resistance. At one point it was the largest city in the area that is now Kazakhstan, but with the rising prominence of Turkestan it was virtually abandoned by the 18th century.

It is now crawling with archaeologists excavating and developing the site. Restoration includes the controversial method of using new materials for partial reconstruction, as you can clearly see with these steps up to a madrassah at the centre of the site.

Apart from the madrassah, they are currently working on the remains of a mosque, which can be seen in the middle distance in the photo below. The city walls are on the horizon.

The workforce are a cheerful and friendly bunch and even invited me to join them for lunch. One of them is perusing a copy of my consulate letter on the right - I find it indispensable for quickly explaining who I am and what I am up to!