La Volée (Feb-Mar ’22)

– La Volée, Normandy, France. 10 hectares, 11 horses, 2 dogs, a cat and 2 hosts, 2 or 3 volunteers. –

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to La Volée and a dream come true… Elena regains her confidence in the saddle.

When I was a little girl of 7, a family friend sat me on the back of his pony as it was grazing on the lawn. As the story goes, I sat on the pony for hours, and consented to dismount only when I had to go home. I still remember looking down at that brown and white back, feeling him move under me as he grazed. Such wonder. I was in love, and once that passion ignited, it has lasted my entire life. I rode for many years.

And then, when I was 16, several things conspired, and I abruptly stopped ridding. For one thing, the horse that I had been riding for years got retired, school also was taking an inordinate amount of time, but the thing that really did it was a series of riding accidents I had all in one day… I took a very green (untrained), abused, fresh off-the-track Thoroughbred, on a mock steeple chase. Boy was that a mistake. He’d never been outside of a ring, the dear thing, and he bucked me off 3 times in a row!

In hindsight, we were not taking good care of him, nor of me. I managed to push off his bucking back and land on my feet (and roll) all three times (I couldn’t have done that on purpose if I tried, but that’s a testament to what kind of a rider I was), so no injuries… except to my confidence. And that, as you can imagine, was severely bruised. I rode some after that, but not enough to recover it. This was a mistake that would take many years to rectify. I didn’t realize that something I was that good at could go away so easily.

And though I didn’t ride much for years to come, I still followed the horse world. The day I learned about natural and liberty horsemanship, I knew I had found my way back into the saddle. All I needed was to land in a barn that practiced it… Fast forward 33 years(!) to La Volée, and ladies and gentlemen, my dream of regaining my confidence in the saddle was realized! Wahoo!!

I am ever so grateful to the humans and animals there, and the beautiful, supportive environment they’ve created.

Allow me to introduce you to La Volée…

– As I arrived for the first time, I was greeted by typical Normandy winter weather… wet and grey. –
– The pastures are beautiful, rolling hills. That’s Luka way off in the distance on the right. –
– We stayed in the big guest house. Hi Luka. –
– We heated it with this stove, which we got to know really well, as you can imagine. –
– We each had our own room. My view of the horses. –
– It was fun to watch them, even from the hall. –
– Sunset from the bathroom –
– Sunset from our terrace. –
– Our hosts each had their own house, and Sarah, an incredible cook, would invite us over to her’s for dinners. Yum!! Hi, Annabelle.-
– Erica would often invite us in for a warm cup of tea. Hi, Erica. –
– The view from Erica’s solarium. Hi, Cosmo. –
– And of course, there was mud. Lots and lots of mud. Here, we’re mucking out a paddock, literally, ankle deep in mud. –
– We fed hay twice a day. –
– Which, eventurally, we could do with our eyes closed. –
– We also mucked out the barn and feeding areas. –
– And there was a vegetable garden. This is what it looked like when we started. –
– And, we groomed. Hi, Sarah and Angel. –
– And, of course, I rode! This was my first ride. Hi, Sweetie. –

I rode Sweetie for the first couple of rides. She’s the beginner horse. She’s calm and unflappable. Great for helping me relax and trust myself – I certainly trusted her!

– We also took Sarah’s young horse out for walks, with a local trainer, to get her used to being out on trails. –

This is what we didn’t do with the Thoroughbred that got scared on the steeple chase and bucked me off. This was not a popular practice at the time, and it makes so much sense! If we had slowly exposed him to trails by taking him for short walks with a calm, experienced horse, as we were doing here, he could have gotten used to things a little at a time versus being totally overwhelmed his first time out.

At La Volée we usually used Sweetie for this, because her calm, experienced demeanor helped the youngsters relax. Horses are herd animals, so if one has experience in a situation the others will often follow. Being with Sweetie while she calmly reacted to birds bursting out of bushes, huge tractors going by, etc. was a valuable education for any young horse.

– Grooming Sweetie with France. Hi, France! Remember France? I met her in Paris after the car accident. I’m really grateful that she suggested we find a natural horsemanship barn to work at together! This was her dream, too and she suggested we go together. Thanks, France! –
– Ride number 2. –

I was scared to canter. (Canter is the gate after walk and trot, that feels like a rocking chair.) I realized it reminded my body of getting bucked off. On this second ride, I was building up my courage to ask Sweetie to canter, and about a minute in, this super calm horse just started cantering without me even asking! I was startled, but fine. She knew. She knew I’d be fine and she didn’t see any need to wait. Heh.

I don’t have any photos of the third ride, which went well, too and after that, it was all good. By the time I left I had 85% of my confidence back. Yay! Such a wonderful feeling.

– This was the fresh market in Ger, the little village near by. There was an organic vegetable farm that used draft horses to work their land. We were in heaven. –
– One day I collected tadpoles for Erica from one of the little ponds. Many got eaten by the fish in the new pond, and some of them survived. –
– We also took Erica’s young horses out for walks to get them used to trails. Such a nice connection. Hi, Arlo. –
– One weekend, Luka and I visited Domfront, a local village. –
– “It is possible that upon entering this church you will hear the call of God. On the other hand, it is less probable that he will contact you by telephone. Thank you for turning off your phone. If you would like to talk with God, enter, choose a quiet place and speak to him. If you would like to see him, send him an SMS while driving…” –
– Lunch with a view. –
– After lunch, we go down the stairs, and follow a path along side the oddly narrow house… and find a delightful little rabbit. –
– And over the fence opens a garden full of wonders. –
– On the way home, I give my apple to this beautiful lion-horse stallion. –
– Life settled into a nice rhythm of working on the land in the mornings and working with the horses in the afternoons. –
– Collecting horse manure for the garden. –
– On France’s last day, we raked molehills flat in the pastures. –
– And France did her famous disappearing act, only this time we caught it on film! –
– We also went for a walk around the property. –
– Took a last hike, and had a lovely farewell dinner at ours. –

France, who inspired all of this the night we stayed up so late in her apartment in Paris, went home to take care of her fuzzy menagerie. The remaining four of us stayed at La Volée, enjoying each others company, working, hiking, playing with the horses, and generally enjoying life.