Welsh Cobs, Wales

Ifor Lloyd’s family has been breeding Welsh Cobs for generations. We visited his stud farm, Derwen International Welsh Cob Centre in Ceredigion. There is a nice museum with old photos of his family’s endeavors, as well as artifacts that tell the story of the Welsh Cob’s evolution.

Ifor had some of his riders bring out two stallions and a mare. The riders and their horses pranced around a nearby field. These horses moved very well. They had big, beautiful expressive eyes, typical of the breed, and wild flowing manes.

At one point, the two riders on the stallions got a little too close to each other and the stallions decided to show their might to each other, but thankfully there was no contact involved as the riders handled their mounts quite well. My favorite part of the visit was seeing the foals with their moms run into a nearby paddock. Seeing horses outside together has such a calming effect on me. I love to see them together and happy and it is always nice to see the foals.

Cae Iago, West Wales

Today I headed out on a Welsh Cob named Seren with Charlie Pollak, a long-time trekker, who has been leading riders in this rural section of West Wales for over 35 years. Charlie rode Top Gun. I was in for some great stories and scenery during my ride with Charlie.

There are lots of other guests from the U.S. and Britain here at Cae Iago to ride as well. A few of them come yearly, which is nice to hear. Leslie, who runs Cae Iago and is a really good cook, keeps everyone well fed with big breakfasts, nice packed lunches for the trails, afternoon tea and sweets and a scrumptious dinner.

Charlie led me down the road to a spot where we would begin our climb into the Cambrian Mountains. We trotted and bit. I was able to find out more about the area, as we passed quaint old stone farmhouses. Leslie, who grew up in the area, is Charlie’s daughter. This being a sparsely populated section of the country, Leslie’s entire school when she was growing up had about 20 people. I can’t even fathom a school so small. Things have changed a bit now, but the class sizes are still super small. Most people in the area make their living farming. Many have sheep, which dot the mountains and green pastures.
The dirt road that we followed to trek up to a high spot was on the edge of a hill with a steep drop off on the right side. As Charlie and I trekked uphill side by side, I pondered my position on the edge. I actually felt quite safe, until Charlie told me about a time when his horse spooked and he went over the edge! I would be find on Seren though, who was the perfect mount for the day- just spirited enough.

As we climbed up higher the views got better and better. On one side, I was looking at a rugged mountainside and the other, a patchwork quilt of beautiful countryside. We cantered around on a trail on top of the mountain, before having our lunch at the top amid panoramic views of an old Roman road below and peaceful rural countryside. Charlie told me that Romans to this area seeking gold. There are gold mines in the area still.

We climbed still higher to a cairn, before heading across the muddy moors, into a forest and to a mountain lake. The forests here are quite nice, as the floors are blanketed with moss and lichen. It is quite cool and pretty. All of this green growing everywhere is because of the abundant rainfall. We, thankfully, did not get rained on during our trek.

Kayaköy, Lycian Coast, Turkey

Norma from Perma Ranch outside of Feythie on the Mediterranean Coast of Turkey is a true horse lover. She takes small groups on day and week long riding excursions from Perma Ranch. Norma is British. She fell in love with this part of Turkey while on vacation here and decided to move.
She led us to the deserted city of Kayaköy in the town of Kaya. On the ride there, we passed lots of small farms, stone fences and family run restaurants. We also passed Roman tombs and had the chance to do a short canter down some suitable roads. Kayaköy was once a town inhabited by thousands of Anatolian Greeks.

The Greeks were forced to abandon it during the population exchange agreement between the Greeks and Turks in the 1920’s. Norma talked about this book, “Birds Without Wings,” which I really want to read after riding through Kayaköy. It’s really eerie to ride through this large deserted town. The people that lived here were forced to leave their homes and lives in Turkey, taking basically what they could carry, and head for Greece.

We rode through the old cobblestone paths. We tied up our horses and hiked up to a church further up in the town, where Norma described a bit more about what life might have been like here. I could imagine the activity. Children running up and down the hills, flowers outside of the windows of the homes.

For dinner we headed to a local kebab place, where we were able to grill our own food by the table. It was really good, especially after a long day on the trails.