David's Page
(David L O Smith)

Hi, I’m David, married to Liz, and I’m rather older than most people in the group, although most people are kind enough to say that it doesn’t show that much!

My first real encounter with horses that I can remember was as a small boy on holiday on a Cornish farm: a draft horse called Darling, who we rode on whilst bringing the wheat sheaves back to the stackyard, and a chestnut pony called Jessie, who we rode bareback whilst firmly holding on to some mane and being confidently lead by one of the farmer’s three daughters.  Although there were several closer encounters since, I did not learn to ride ‘properly’ until about fifteen years ago.  Finding a riding school that is willing to take an adult male can be quite a challenge (no suitable horses or suspicious of my motives) but there was a very reputable dressage school not so far away and lessons were arranged.  Hah, after about five nanoseconds, I realised that this hour was going to be the highlight of my week for some time to come.

My real reason for wanting to learn to ride was so that I could go out for hacks with Fern (15.1hh Arab x Hunter chestnut mare), who was Liz’s horse at the time and who was not a novice ride.  Fortunately for me, one of our friends kept her mare, who was more suitable for a novice, in the nearby field and stables where Liz kept Fern and I was soon able to take her out with another friend riding Fern, as Liz and Fern did not get on (their temperaments were too similar, I think).  However, Fern and I had always got on well so, confidence built up a bit, I tried going for a short hack with her.  It took about the same five nanoseconds to decide that this was what I was going to be doing in future.

So, for several years I took Fern out on the quiet bridleways around Pulloxhill in Bedfordshire, usually on our own but occasionally with other people in the village (no, let’s be honest, occasionally with young women in the village!).  Having ‘stolen’ Liz’s horse she then set about finding another one and eventually found Nenagh, who many of you will know.

Sadly, Fern's kidneys started to give up in the summer of 2007 and we said good-bye to her in October.

Fern (see Fern's page)

It was Liz who ‘discovered’ natural horsemanship, through Hev, and she started working with Nenagh.  At about the same time, our farrier found Claude for me; we’d asked her about three years before to keep a look out for a suitable horse for me because Fern was getting on a bit and I’m not small.

See Claude's page

Hev was very encouraging and complimentary in saying that, although we’d not had any natural training, we were well on the way there on our own with the way we looked after and rode our horses.  Of course, Hev was then equally discouraging by moving away to Devon!  Fortunately, at about this time we met Row and Sam who said there were other aspiring natural horse owners in the area and, before not too long, a meeting at Fiona and Estelle’s parents home lead to what was to become the very informal Naturally Horses group.  I volunteered to manage a website with an e-mail discussion group, the idea was accepted and naturallyhorses.org.uk appeared.

I also work a little for Unicorn Trails, who offer horse riding experiences world wide.  In the spring of 2004, I went on a Moroccan adventure: The High Atlas Explorer Trail (extensive write-up), which started in the desert at a small kasbah in the palm plantation of Skoura, traversed the High Atlas Mountains (pass of Tizi-n-Tichka at 8000 feet) and finished on the Plains of Marrakech.  The complete trip was 230 miles and involved ten and a half days of riding in the early part of May, although the weather was 'unseasonably cold' in the mountains, hence the warm clothing I have on in the picture.  There were five riders, although only two of us, and our two guides, had time to complete the whole traverse.

At the time, Nassim was not a very 'personable' horse; he would rather you let him get on with his job and you can just get on with yours.  He didn't do this bonding 'stuff' or whinnying and whickering like the other stallions on the traverse would  for their riders but I was still sad to have to say good-bye to him after a fortnight.  (However, I rode him again as an escort for a charity fund raising challenge (short write-up) in 2006 and he was transformed - we are now firm friends!)

Nassim and David
(see more pictures and read more about
Crossing The High Atlas)

In 2005, I joined two others from Unicorn Trails as a horse guide on a corporate holiday for 150 people from an international management consultancy that involved riding the first few days of the High Atlas Explorer Trail.  I was disappointed that Nassim was not amongst the troupe that we used; I'd liked to have seen him again and would certainly have asked for him if it'd been possible.  One day I shall find the time to collate the photographs and write up this remarkable desert experience!

Champs (pronounced Shompse)
and David

Hasni and David on the Aragon Trail

By way of a rest from the corporate holiday work, I went on the Aragon Trail in in Spain September last year.  Here is just one picture of Hasni and me in the mountains.  It was a shame that the weather was so wet in a region that is normally so dry, and had been for about two years - until I arrived.  There are more pictures and a write up of this canyon and mountain trail on my website.

Here I am with Nassim again, this time on the Skoura to Tarbahlt Desert Trail in February, 2006 when I was an escort for Unicorn Trails to a party of riders who raised nearly 100,000 Euro for the Irish Heart Foundation on the Moroccan Horse Trek Challenge.  Although the five and half days riding, for up to nine hours per day, through taxing terrain was quite demanding, the highlight of the trip for me was the  gallops to our final campsite in the sand dunes.  More pictures, a video of the gallop  (35MB download, takes time but you must see it*) and a write-up of this desert challenge.

*2.5 minutes, and subtitled: I'm not sure if this was covered by the travel insurance!

The riders with their Icelandic Horses

Before Unicorn Trails offers a riding holiday destination, a senior person in the company has to check it out - it's a tough job but somebody has to do it!  Liz and I recently went together to check on the Yates Trail in Co. Sligo in NW Ireland and then I went to Iceland to ride on the Glacier Trail.  We rode 160 miles in five and a half days, from the coast in the south up over the highlands, through the glaciers, to the Atlantic in the north (almost to the Arctic Circle). We had 73 Icelandic horses for 20 riders and we each changed horses once or twice every day; the unridden horses ran free with us, a group of riders at the front to stop them overtaking, and a group at the rear to encourage them on when they dawdled or stopped to eat the meagre grass.

I went on another exploratory ride for Unicorn Trails: the Forest and Lakes Trail in Sweden, riding with Natural Horsemanship as the heart of the experience. The North Swedish Horses (cold bloods) are powerful but biddable animals, real ‘diesels’ in their performance (bit slow to warm up but they go and go and go!)  We rode in side-pull (bitless) bridles.  Rather than a point-to point trail, this was a 'star ride', that is out to different locations in the forest for a picnic lunch and then back to a very comfortable ‘pub’ (within the horse barn) and farm house accommodation each evening.  There is mandatory natural horsemanship tuition, demonstrations and exercises on the first day before a gentle ride on forest tracks.   On the daily rides, we had many long canters,  but we also had a night-time moonlight ride, when we swam in a lake, baked bread, relaxed in an open air hot tub and had a BBQ.  On one evening we had hands-on experience driving a draught horse for timber collection.  On my last day, I was given Bull to ride, the largest horse on the farm who was originally trained as a draught horse and had only recently been out on the trials.

David and Bull

I didn't really want to leave the Salta region because I was not really looking forward to the overnight bus journey to Mendoza; I have experienced overnight bus journeys in various parts of the world before and there'd not been much to choose between them.  But this bus journey was almost the highlight of the trip!  The bus was more like a small moving hotel that left a very pleasant central bus terminal in Salta at about four in the afternoon and arrived at Mendoza at about nine the following morning.  We were served tea shortly after the journey began, then I read and dozed, was woken up to have my evening meal with wine, and more wine and a movie.  At about eleven, I reclined my chair into a completely horizontal position and the next thing I remember was being gently woken up just after eight to be asked if I would like some breakfast - and we were 600 miles to the south west in Mendoza!

The High Andes, Mendoza

After the riding, I was taken on a trip around a vineyard in an open two-horse carriage and in a 4x4 to see abandoned slate mines (shade of my exploits as a teenager in North Wales), which was all very interesting but, eventually, we had to return by plane to Buenos Aires.   After the wonderful wildernesses of Salta and Mendoza, the bustling and exciting city was quite a shock but quite marvelous in its own way.  I was taken on the most extraordinarily different bus tour (bus to first place, blinds are wound down, short introductory video on the area, get out and walk, back on bus to next place, repeat - brilliant!) but the less that is said about my disastrous Tango lessons with a young dance teacher the better.  The Tango dinner and lively entertainment afterwards made up for it, though.

My mare for the week, Adrienne

I shall write more about my horse adventures  when I have the time but, meanwhile, you may read a bit more about them and what else I do (model engineering, railway models, old tractors and other old vehicles), on my website:  www.davidlosmith.co.uk.