We start across Hungary

We are off again! On Monday March 22nd Mike and I arrived at Tiszabecs on the Hungarian border with Ukraine, having picked up the Shagya gelding Dalllam. After a night in the lorry by the border point, we set out early on Tuesday morning 23rd March. Dallam was somewhat excited, but I was relieved to find he is bombproof in traffic. However unfortunately he weaves, which will be a bit of a worry until one of the other horses joins the team. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term weaving, it means rocking from side to side in frustration, for example if a horse friend is removed.
On Wednesday 24th March we reached Mateszalka to rendezvous with the Hungarian press in the centre of town. I was interviewed for TV, and Dallam and I were filmed and photographed engaging in a variety of activities - walking through town, me having a coffee with Dallam tied to convenient tree, Dallam accepting apple from shopkeeper etc - he behaved with aplomb throughout.

We were also approached by a delightful local riding school proprietor who has become our new Hungarian 'fixer' - the wonderful Bernadette Miko, or Betti to her friends. She has taken it upon herself to organise our entire accommodation across Hungary as it appears it is to be a triumphal progress!

I had already arranged to stay overnight at the astables of Dr Ungvari where little Zorbee the Kazakh stallion is still quarantined, but on Thursday morning I rode over to Betti's stables, as she was going to accompany me part of the way to Napkor, near Nireghaza. Here she is on her horse Harry Potter .... ....and she was able to guide me on a lovely route through the fields. About halfway she turned me over to the 'Hussars' - three Hungarian riders who essentially dress up in Hussar costumes for special occasions, although disappointingly not on this one - Chubur Snr and Jnr (the latter known as Chubby!) and Miklos (Miki) on the Hungarian horses. They were on a form of equestrian pub crawl which seemed to involve a mad gallop through the Hungarian countryside interspersed with knocking back beers at any convenient watering holes. I had prevailed upon Betti to warn them that my horse was not fit and to keep the pace down, but they could not resist the occasional spanking trot through the forest.
We rode most of the way along an old pilgimage route via the important Catholic and Orthodox city of Mariapocs - I say 'city' as although it is actually a very small and otherwise inconsequential rural town, city status was conferred on ti after a recent papal visit!

The three musketeers or rather hussars in front of the Orthodox church in Mariapocs ....

L to R - Chubur Snr on his Kisberi horse, Chubby on his part Kisberi, Miki on Noniusz horse.

Below - stopping for a convivial lunch at a hunting lodge in the forest - do not be fooled by all the soft drinks - a bottle of wine soon appeared from somewhere. L to R as above but without horses. .......and they delivered me safe and relatively sober to our Napkor host Bela, who fed us large quantities of Hungarian sausages and Mangalitsa pork washed down with palinka. Palinka is a Hungarian spirit which makes a frequent appearance, drunk in shots to be downed in one by the big boys and girls, though I can only manage to sip it primly.

Mangalitsa are an astonishing looking woolly traditional Hungarian pig which seems to be the in thing to keep in Hungary these days.

A Driver at Last!

This morning I still did not have a driver for the back up lorry who could start at short notice, which meant a worrying delay to the start of this final leg.
In desperation I phoned the Jamie and Louise programme on Radio Wales http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/radiowales/sites/jamieandlouise/ as I have been interviewed for the programme twice before. They enthusiastically helped me put out an urgent appeal, and as a result Michael Garman from near Carmarthen is setting off to Hungary with me first thing on Saturday morning!

Many thanks to Jamie and Louise and staff for their help, and also to Tommo on Radio Carmarthenshire, who put out another appeal which resulted in a potential driver for later on in the stage.

We should reach Hungary on Sunday evening, and then will collect the Shagya gelding Dallam on Monday morning en route for Tiszabecs on the Hungarian border with Ukraine. He is a 10 year old who was only gelded a couple of years ago, and has been mainly used for showjumping. Below is a thumbnail photo of him in action, which is the best I have of him at the moment!


The Long Horse Ride blog has been included in the Monster 50 top UK pet and animal blogs by Monster Pet Supplies http://blog.monsterpetsupplies.co.uk/themonster50/

The Next Big Thing!

In January, daughter Iona, singing and playing her electric harp, qualified for the semi-finals of 'The Next Big Thing'. This is a talent competition run by International Confex, a major exhibition for the events industry http://www.international-confex.com/. Last week I became an elderly roadie when I carted all her kit up to the Excel exhibition centre in London!

There was great excitement on Tuesday when she got through to the finals, but even more on Thursday when she actually won the whole competition! She receives £1000 to spend on her mother, a stand at next year's Confex, and a contract with events agency Sternberg-Clarke http://www.sternbergclarke.co.uk/

Here she is getting her mitts on the obligatory bottle of champagne presented by the compere ...

....... and here is an article with video clips by Event Magazine ...

http://www.eventmagazine.co.uk/news/1121668/Video-exclusive-Next-Big-Thing-final/

Hungary, Horse Hunt and Home

Been a bit quiet again as I have had trouble accessing my blog, but the good news is that we are in the EU!!

I had to make yet more corrections to the EU paperwork before I could leave Ukraine, but I eventually was able to load up my remaining horse on the afternoon of Wednesday February 22nd and set off for the border. Predictably it was not all plain sailing in Ukrainian customs as had been promised, but Natalya came to my rescue on the mobile, and eventually everything was sorted out and stamped and I was allowed through to face the Hungarians. What a relief when I finally drove out into the dark of the Hungarian countryside at around 4.00 am in the morning!!

The little Kazakh stallion is now in his isolation stable near Mateszalka, courtesy of Dr Ungvari Zsigmond, who has been most kind and helpful, letting me use the warm and comfortable holiday bungalow on his riding centre/stud. Here he is with some of the family which seems to consist almost entirely of medical doctors.

The vet came to blood test the little horse on Saturday, and his new Hungarian passport is being prepared - this should take about 5 weeks.

Then it was off to stay at the Hungarian national Shagya arabian stud at Babolna while I was looking for a replacement horse. The stud at Babolna was set up in 1789 to breed remounts for the Austria- Hungarian army, and it soon came to concentrate on the exclusive use of desert and purebred arabian sires to produce what became the famous Shagya arabian, which is a distinct breed in its own right. They were developed both as riding and carriage horses, and are larger and stronger in physical type than the purebred arabian.

The stud is focused round a lovely old complex of buildings - mainly comprising a large courtyard at the centre of which is an indoor riding school and an elderly but comfortable hotel - very reasonable rates and it is superb to be able to walk straight out the front door and into the stallion block!

A stallion being led from the riding school back to the stallion block .....

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The main foundation sires which were sourced from Arabia included Gazlan-Gazal, Koheilan, Mersuch, Dahoman, Siglavy, Siglavy Bagdady, the black O Bajan, and of course the original and prepotent sire Shagya, who was brought back to Babolna in 1836.
Below is the statue of Shagya himself which dominates the central courtyard.....

One of the stunning Shagya stallions in his loose box. This is Gazal XXI.

Rather confusingly for the uninitiated for whom maths is not a strong point, the stallions at Babolna are mainly named after the stallion line they originate from, with a personal number attached. As can be seen from the sign below, Gazal XXI is mainly descended from Gazal and Shagya lines.

Mares and foals in the barn at the mare and foal unit...

There were a couple of very suitable horses for sale at the stud, but unfortunately a little beyond my budget. However I managed to identify a few promising Shagya arabians from the website www.lovasok.hu and on Wednesday drove across the country to see two of the most likely candidates. The upshot is that I have bought Zahira, a 7 year old ride and drive Shagya mare. She is a lovely stamp of a mare, if not top show quality.  Her elderly owner has recently had an operation and is unable to use her - she seems very sweet tempered and it was evident that she was very much a member of the family. Here she is with her breeder, very much in the rough as she has been turned away since August.....

But she was duly lunged and ridden with no problems, and I was able to have a little potter around on her back. I am arranging for her to be covered by an old Shagya stallion they have on the stud.

I am also negotiating for a 10 year Shagya gelding who has been used mainly for show jumping - I will include a photo if I actually buy him!

Early the next morning I set off for home in the lorry, and am now back in the Land of My Fathers, and hope to drive back out to Hungary to set off again in a couple of weeks time.

I am desperately looking for a volunteeer driver for the support lorry if you or anyone you know is interested. For a couple of weeks or more from mid March to July. Must have a Class C category driving licence, but if you have been driving for more than 10 years you automatically will. Bring your own sleeping bag.

Contact me at megancwrtycadno@hotmail.co.uk for details or to sign up!

Zaftra .....

...which is the Ukrainian equivalent of the Spanish 'manyana', and is the word which most seems to rule my life at the moment.
Got the Ukrainian permissions for exit on Monday, and eventually met up with the vet - but he then announced he was not qualified to complete the EU forms, and I was passed on to the customs veterinary department. Had a mad drive in Zhenya's Lada through the melting snow to Mukachevo twenty miles away, but too late to do anything on the day. So the following day Zhenya drove me out again, and we spent most of the day in a bleak office with peeling yellow paint in a run down building filling in interminable forms for both Ukrainian and Hungarian customs. A little tricky to complete the English and Hungarian EU certificates when the vet did not speak English and my Russian is severely limited to say the least, but with the help of Natalya on the mobile we managed somehow, and the forms were copiously signed and stamped.
Then it was off to a nearby office to scan and email twenty-three pages of bumf to Dr Halasz at Zahony.
Got back to the hotel to find he had emailed to say that one of the pages had not been filled in correctly, though happily everything else was OK.
Back again to customs this morning to correct, sign and stamp the relevant pages, on to the office to email them to Dr Halasz, and now I am back at the hotel waiting with bated breath for his response. Cross fingers all is positive.

Life here in the meantime has been reasonably comfortable, though the hotel has not had water for four days which has made the sanitary arrangements rather challenging. I have been scooping up snow in a saucepan and melting it on the radiator so I can have a cat-lick wash every morning.

The Ukrainian Department of Circumlocution Reigns Supreme

I am now back in the Carpathians at Y Tarasa, the small holiday complex where little Zorbee is stabled. The countryside is under two to three feet of snow, and it was topped up by another few inches last night.
I arrived on Wednesday, but was told that Nikolay Mihailovich the vet would not be able to see me until Thursday afternoon. But on Thursday I was then told that until the unfortunate Big Bolashak's body had been burnt and buried and Nikolay Mihailovich had signed the death certificate, he would not be able to complete the paperwork for little Zorbee's entry to the EU.
Some progress was made yesterday in that not only was the death certificate issued, but also the Hungarian isolation permission for little Zorbee to stay at the stables at Fonix Park near Mateszalka in Hungary.

So today I was hoping that once the EU documents had been completed, emailed to the Hungarian border vet service at Zahony, checked and OKed, I would be able to set off for Hungary with the horse.
But this is Ukraine, where nothing is ever straightforward as I discovered once again after waiting around for a couple of hours this morning. Firstly I was told that vets in Ukraine (or certainly not this part of Ukraine) do not work at the weekend for religious reasons. And secondly, although I was originally given 10 days to get the horses out of Ukraine and had to apply for an extension on medical grounds, apparently I now cannot leave here for Hungary without some sort of official permission. This cannot be sorted out until Monday. And of course I only have ten days from the issue of the medical results which I think was last Tuesday (but not sure!) to get the horse from Ukraine to Hungary.

So I must continue to kick my heels here. At least I have a very comfortable suite which even includes a jacuzzi, not that I intend making use of it! The room temperature was so tropical when I arrived that my butter melted and I had a restless first night's sleep, but I have now turned off the radiators and it is just beautifully cosy. I expect I will spend the weekend in my pad reading and drinking wine to drown my sorrows. I will probably give telly a miss as it is mainly limited to pop channels sporting scantily clad Ukrainian beauties writhing in hay barns and the like.

I would like to include a few photos, but in typical style I have forgotten the lead to download them from my camera.

Another Tragedy

If I have gone very quiet for the last few weeks, it is because I have been madly concentrating on negotiations to get the horses into the EU. Last weekend they fulfilled the 90 day requirement for importation rather than temporary entry, so it was decided to go for that.  Dr Halasz of the Hungarian border vet service at Zahony has been indispensable in identifying all the necessary documentation, and I have been frantically emailing the wonderful Natalia in Kiev to keep abreast of progress in the Ukraine. The horses had a series of veterinary tests over Christmas (all clear) and another set last week, giving me a week's grace to transport them into Hungary. So everything seemed positive.

On Sunday I set out to drive to Zahony, arriving late Tuesday evening - as the snow was whirling outside the windscreen for much of the way and the heating in the lorry is not working, my feet were like blocks of ice and I had to stop regularly at service stations to defrost.
I was expecting to spend today in the border vet offices double-checking requirements for both horses.
But this morning I received the tragic news that Bolashak (whose passport name is Sunkar) had unexpectedly died due to a freak accident. Apparently a couple of days ago he slipped and fell on ice, knocking himself out on the edge of a well. He received immediate veterinary treatment, and the vet thought he was recovering satisfactorily, but last night he was found dead in his stable. Another heartbreaking tragedy as he was a lovely easygoing horse who was proving increasingly perfect for the job in hand - a comfortable ride who was good to shoe, load, handle, tether, and in traffic. He will be difficult to replace but replace him I must.
I am plodding on with arrangements for little Zorbee, and intend to travel into Ukraine tomorrow with copies of EU approved Health certificates for the Ukrainian vet to fill in and sign. If little Zorbee crosses successfully into Hungary, then he heads straight for a 30 day isolation period that I have organised at a nearby stables.