ROVING WRITERS: Eileen Battersby takes her daughter Nadia and their mare, Kate, on a riding holiday at Annaharvey Farm in Co Offaly.
It's dark. The mild summer's evening has become night and suddenly chilly. In through the gates and up the driveway. A rabbit darts across our path. But there's a far bigger movement in the paddock to the left; an investigative whinny tells us our arrival has been noted. An answer booms out from our trailer, the sound magnified by the surrounding silence of the Offaly countryside.
A couple of lamps remain lit in the farmhouse. It is late and everyone has gone to bed. But we weren't forgotten. A loaf of home-made bread, cheese, salami and tomatoes have been left out. A young man appears, Aaron, the youngest son. He has been watching the football, and shows us the stable, deep in fresh straw, before fetching us a wheelbarrow of sweet haylage.
Horses are interesting characters, far more subtle than they're given credit for. More elusive than your favourite cat or dog, they still manage to get very close to you. So off Nadia and I went on a riding weekend to Annaharvey Farm Equestrian Centre, in Tullamore, Co Offaly, bringing our own special mare, Kate - the family matriarch with a passion for cross-country - with us.
Most riders in Ireland, and many others from abroad, will be aware of Annaharvey. Established in 1996, it has an excitingly diverse and versatile cross-country course planned out over 150 acres of a 400-acre working tillage farm. The Deverell family has a particular interest in eventing and show jumping. Their eldest son Sam has evented at international level and is as gifted an instructor as he is a rider. The active ethos at Annaharvey is ideal for the all-round rider, with the stables offering an impressive selection of willing all-rounders who thrive on variety, good care and generous turn-out. There are 12 livery horses.
At 5 a.m. on Saturday, it is wet and windy, too wild to explore new territory on Kate. So we wait. The rain continues. Nadia reckons Kate is getting restless and we opt for the indoor arena which adjoins the stable complex, one of the farm's three stable blocks. By 8 a.m., the working day has begun. On returning Kate to her stable of the previous night, Sam appears, and tells me we'd better quickly move her to the livery block, as "the riding school horses are about to come in". Having settled Kate in her new temporary residence in the newest of the stable blocks, it is time to watch Sam gather the riding school horses in from the fields.
This most routine part of the working day is a spectacle in itself. Few sights are more beautiful than a herd of horses on the move. Rounded up by Sam's jeep, they power into view. Into the arena file the business-like, uniformly good-looking horses; Irish Draughts including a fine big grey gelding called Jacob which I wanted on sight, cobs, ponies, coloured horses, and some cross-breds. They know the routine and wait their turn as they are led in turn into the stables where they will be tacked up for the morning sessions.
After breakfast, our group, which includes Annaharvey regulars as well as three Norwegian women from an Oslo riding club, Miriam Bode, from Finland who is nearing the end of her week's stay, and Margaret from San Francisco who is keen on dressage and will be watched by her less experienced husband, son and daughter. It is a flat session, concentrating on technique and control.
Nadia's partner is Crunchie, a bay pony gelding, and I team up with the lovely Serengeti, an elegant thoroughbred bay mare from a good family - i.e. bloodline. The instructor, Vanessa Meredith, is a member of the Annaharvey Farm Riding Club team that has just qualified for the Association of Irish Riding Clubs' team show jumping final at the forthcoming RDS Dublin Horse Show.
With the eye of an eagle and the enthusiasm of a cheerleader, Vanessa quickly establishes an exciting atmosphere. Each rider concentrates on establishing harmony with her horse. Serengeti, as graceful as a gazelle, is a joy to ride and loves having her face rubbed. Too soon for everyone, the hour-long lesson ends. Vanessa has got the best from us all. One thing is obvious, Annaharvey horses are very good.
"It takes a couple of years to train a good riding school horse capable of working with all levels of rider," says Henry Deverell, who has been breeding horses for many years, has six brood mares and is also always on the look-out for good riding cobs - of which he has many. "We look to the horse's temperament as well as its ability. A lot of time is invested in each horse, and we don't sell them on. Often people come back to ride the same horse they had the last time."
Miriam from Finland is already is love with Basil, a small bay cob with a big heart. She will be back. Vanessa on Ted, a black cob, Nadia now on Comanche and myself on Kate, we head out to investigate the cross-country course. On the way back, we join Sam leading a hack out, which includes Billy, a 25-year-old Dutch former Grand Prix horse and his owner, over the corn fields and on through the Van Gogh yellow of the rape seed fields, across the main road and into the forest. We splash through a small stream and head back across the fields in time for lunch. Capable of detecting a horsefly at 100 paces, Sam soon has the rest of us checking our horses for horseflies and squeezing the little bloodsuckers. Pop.
After lunch we join the Norwegians on a hack through the fields and along longer stretches of stream. Now I'm riding Renagh, a fabulous chestnut Irish Draught mare I had noticed earlier in the morning. A good, athletic Irish Draught is a great riding horse and Renagh clearly loves high stepping through the water. Back at base, the mare has earned her rest. It's time for a cross-country session, I change over to Doogle, a chocolate cob which likes verbal encouragement - which he got - and Nadia rides Jasmine, a willing black mare with a white star and a love of jumping.
Sam, who is a qualified course designer for the Show Jumping Association of Ireland, also builds courses for the Irish Horse Trials Society. "Don't be too nice to Doogle," he advises me. Point taken. Sam has designed the Annaharvey course, which includes a range of fixed and moveable jumps. He leads the way around the course and shows how best to read it. It's a good session. Back in the stables, we take the tack off our mounts, and it's time to take Kate, who has been fuming at me from a small paddock for riding other horses, out for a session in the outdoor arena.
It settles her and she returns contentedly to the stable, where Aussie, a beautiful black Oldenburg gelding, is relaxing following his dressage session. Standing just under 18 hands, he is spectacular, blessed with a magnificent head. Sam spotted Aussie while working in Germany, and Sam's sister, Rachel Deverell, bought the horse four years ago. She has competed him at national level.
Over supper, Lynda Deverell, a natural organiser of daunting Quaker-like flair and efficiency, and chairperson of Equestrian Holidays Ireland since 2002, explains how Annaharvey evolved. Henry, her husband and one of the most sympathetic handlers of horses, is the third generation on the family farm. "We had been involved in beef cattle and tillage, but we were looking for an extra dimension that would allow the children, who were getting older, to stay working on the farm. We used what we had and created a range of facilities out of the existing buildings. For instance, the riding school stables where your horse stayed the first night was a silage pit." The farmhouse-style guest house was once a barn.
"We like to see Irish people holiday in Ireland," she says. "I feel that the sheer range of quality activity holidays here has not yet been grasped by the Irish ourselves. It is ironic that it is the international visitor looking for something different who is particularly aware of these riding holidays. Most of the riders who come here in the summer are from abroad, although Irish riding clubs do come here for weekends throughout the winter. I love seeing families come to Annaharvey to be together - whether or not they all want to ride."
Day two begins with more rain and another early morning session with Kate in the indoor arena. The school horses arrive for work, and the sun begins to wrestle with the rain. Our Norwegian trio, Basil and his new Finnish friend, and Nadia on Crunchie, as well as a couple who have arrived in the hope of a lesson, are all present and I am reunited with Serengeti, who quickly makes it known that show jumping is her preferred occupation. The course begins with one, and soon grows to two, three and then four jumps.
Each of the horses has its own approach to jumping. Warpaint, a large coloured horse, does enough to get over. Cola, a bay cob, would rather be in Philadelphia. Sinbad, an elegant grey and a bit of a gent, is languid and controlled. Nadia and Crunchie are popping over with abandon. Serengeti tends to get excited with still two horses to jump before her, and is dancing on the spot. It makes riding her even more exciting. She's terrific, and Sam shouts, "go with the flow." It is the type of lesson you'd love to have every day, with the riders and horses becoming fellow conspirators in a special project. At lunch time, we leave the arena convinced Sam is a genius and we are committed show jumpers.
The afternoon sun makes the prospect of the cross-country course even more appealing. Sam is riding Cadbury, a bay who tends to shy, but he steadies him. I am back on Renagh, the chestnut mare, who believes there is only one way to jump cross-country jumps - fast. Nadia and Crunchie feel the same way, as does our Finnish friend and Basil. We sample the 400-metre sand gallops built for Sam's race horses - he also has a permit and does some breeding; his newest foal is two weeks old. The Norwegian trio follows us at a more sedate pace.
Off the gallops we head down a lane for the cross-country course proper. Renagh proves both honest and game, ready to take the jumps. We all canter on, and having followed Sam through a relatively complicated sequence, I ask him to do it again so I can see what we did. He obliges, our own action replay. On we all ride. Nadia is thrilled, and as anyone who rides horses will agree, there is nothing quite as wonderful as riding a happy horse over good country.
This session ends and we all ride down to the indoor arena to dismount. These horses are tired. Adieu Renagh. I kiss her goodbye. Sam still has a private dressage lesson to give. Kate has been relaxing in the stable and seems pleased to be tacked up again. We join a group going on a hack with long canters that incorporates the cross-country course as well as the corn and rape seed fields. Three of us are cantering along through the grape seed when whoosh - we slam on the brakes. There's a sign "Warning. Bees." We turn as one and ride off in the other direction. Perhaps I am biased, but life and the world are so much better in the company of horses.
Annaharvey Farm, Annaharvey, Tullamore, Co Offaly. Contact Lynda Deverell, 0506-43544, e-mail: info@annaharveyfarm.ie, www.annaharveyfarm.ie
Rates include: B&B €35 per day; horse riding €25 per hour; full board including three meals, €65 a day; full board and riding per week, €750.
As part of our continuing summer series - in which Irish Times and other writers turn tourists in their own land - Eileen Battersby travelled to Offaly as a guest of Fáilte Ireland, the National Tourism Development Authority. For more information on holidays in Ireland, see www. ireland.ie. Next week: Novelist Claire Kilroy tours the gardens of west Cork