St Dogmaels Weekend
St Dogmaels Weekend was beautiful with reasonable weather. A few of us turned up to camp on the Friday evening in a field buzzing with bees on a crop of Phacelia. Saturday morning we set off for the Pub at Nevern, a 14 mile drive there and back with food and drinks at lunchtime. A chance to unharness and give the ponies a rest, water and grass at the same time although some of them were over keen to get a bite of a sandwich as well !
Susannah did a lot of preparation for our Mule demo on the Saturday evening. She took us into the woodland and explained about forward planning and health and safety for people and animals. then introduced us to Willow the Mule. She wanted those who were going to work the Mule to have an understanding and a rapport with her which is essential for success, so spent time with people explaining exactly how to chain the wood and line the Mule up to attach the swingle. Willow definitely knew her job and was very willing. She is used often to help train people for this kind of work. Several people had a turn, including those who had no driving experience, they all did very well. and the demo lasted for 2 hours.
Sunday morning was a fine drizzle so we delayed the drives until midday when it brightened up. We all drove around the perimeter of the land which was lovely, lots of space for a fast trot , coming back through small woodland rides. and then out along tracks through a large estate and on to the road. This was our 7 mile drive, coming back through very quiet lanes.
We had a lovey time and were made so welcome.