A selection of the animals we saw while travelling around Namibia. How many can you identify? :-D

Music: "Watermelon Man" by Herbie Hancock from his album "Headhunters"

x75TZZSRE20

What we did on our holiday in Namibia...

Music: Nothing Happens In June by Ulrich Schnauss

cYoWWN8w_c8

I hope Anne Christine doesn't mind me featuring her in one of my videos... she misses her beloved pony Bobby so much and I thought I'd make this video for her... (Bobby is the pony in my video VROOM! who carries on jumping despite a huge plane roaring over the arena).

I hadn't seen her riding recently and thought she may have stopped but in fact she has moved up to riding horses and this video features one of the two she was riding at Sandnes over the weekend. Anne did really well on this day, a second and first placing in two separate classes.

The music is by Capercaillie, the song is called Seice Ruairidh and is sung in Gaelic (if you're wondering what the language is).

GET5CQwz6iQ

This pony is gorgeous! Okay, he gets the first fence down and he runs out of the last and has to circle round to finish but other than that, I thought he jumped really well and has to be the best turned out pony I've seen in a long while.

Fjord's rule!!

SvoF9eGMRtc

:-D

Jr7ecNxqi1o

No horses were hurt in the making of this video. Only the pride of the riders was dented...

** I assert my right to be identified as the photographer of the images used in this video **

hNfz4WZInjY

**Please watch in High Quality**

A compilation of horses from the landstevne held at Søgne - 24th to 26th April 2009.

r1xFJRJVksM

Charlotte has asked me to post this footage of her riding in the 1,25m class on the last day of the landstevne at Søgne so here it is :-)

Vaersågod Charlotte!

Note: There were 43 riders in this class and fifteen of them were eliminated. Only five riders went clear and for a very long time, Charlotte was leading the class.

BAqxtY6yApQ

Hope these videos aren't getting too boring for you! The top three riders in this particular pony class (klasse 5) which was a two-phase class.

There were so many riders at this competition and I took so much film that it's difficult for me to come up with any meaningful videos from all the footage. Things weren't helped by the sometimes chaotic startlists that didn't seem to match the actual order of riders. In addition, I couldn't find any decent spots to film from, the ground was so dry that clouds of dust were being blown up by a cold wind and the sun always seemed to be shining into the camera lens...

Oh well - I'll be posting a compilation film from Søgne and then I'm going to take a short break while I work on some other video projects. Some more interesting stuff will be coming along in the near future!

I'd like to share more videos from the competitions we go to but I'm finding the format of YouTube to be restrictive in that respect so I'm thinking of setting up a website of my own...

GsdWzqZ8Lk0

Rogaland Rideklubb winning this particular round of the Norgesserien team competition in Bergen. (Note for non Norwegian speakers: "lag" is the Norwegian word for "team"). Rather than show everyone's round, I've concentrated on the jump-off section.

The format for the team competition is four riders per team with the best three rounds counting towards the "final score". Therefore, to guarantee getting into a jump-off, three of the team have to go clear in the first round.

In the jump-off, again it's the best three rounds but time is also added up so with two or more teams going clear, it's the fastest aggregate team time.

The Rogaland team got through to the jump-off with the first three riders (Therese, Rachel and Kristine) going clear. Ingrid had four faults but it didn't matter because her round didn't count. In the jump-off, Rachel and Urmalijn put the hammer down with an incredibly fast time but unfortunately the last fence came down. If Rachel looks upset in the video it's because she felt she had let the team down and put unreasonable pressure on the last two riders who had to go clear. Kristine and Ingrid not only went clear but put in respectable times, and along with Therese's equally good time, Rogaland captured first place.

It was an exiting end to a wonderful weekend and although I haven't shown it, The few Rogaland supporters that were there made more than enough noise to make up for lack of numbers at the presentation!

Many many thanks to Olaf Berntsen from Soma Ryttersportsklubb for the excellent still pictures.

kT6_53eCrvg

Rachel warming up Urmalijn on a misty morning at Bergen Rideklubb.

Me trying to be "artistic" again!

Music: "I" by Aphex Twin

UyDmftRjWFo

Another video that includes Ida riding Salix. We take a lot of interest in "our boy" and love to cheer the two of them on. Ida got another placing (the third rosette of the weekend) and once again rode extremely well.

This was a two-phase class so the first part of the video (grunnomgang) looks a bit odd because each rider rode this at their own pace but they all "start" at the same part for the jump-off. It's quite interesting (well I think it's interesting!) to see how the riders pace themselves in the first phase. The eventual winner, Lady Marion, appears to start a long way behind the others but rides at a much faster pace.

The times at the end of the second phase are the actual times recorded by the official timing. It's difficult - in fact impossible - for me to match the timer function in Vegas to the actual time because It's impossible to judge when the riders break the beam of the competition timing equipment.

Music by Horse Noodles.

asAHGeDE0lg