ONE HORSE POWER HOLIDAY IN IRELAND 2005

by

Neil and Dee Mitchener

Like many of us, we felt a bit of “Romany” in our blood, so eventually decided to set off and take a weeks holiday in Galway, south west Ireland, driving our own hired Gypsy Horse Drawn Caravan.  Luckily for me, Dee has a lot of experience with ponies and horses.  However, I just about know one end from the other!  So, a lot of questions from me, like, how does one stop it, make it turn left and right, and make it go, in the first place!!  How often does one feed it, and what does one do when it comes out the other end.  Carry a poopy bag?  Things are so easy with a Cessna or a Warrior, or even a Helicopter! One just gets in, starts up, checks and off you go, allegedly!.  But, we are about to be in charge of a very powerful animal, and probably a mind of its own!  With all this consideration, we happily and excitedly, set off in July of this year from Bournemouth Airport via Ryanair’s one-hour flight to Dublin, on a Boeing 737.

Arriving in Dublin, we boarded a waiting luxury coach to travel directly west, through some glorious countryside, and sunshine, to our stop at Loughrea, a small town approximately 20miles from Galway, and a few miles from our final destination “Cartron House”, in the village of Ballinakill, where we would meet our hosts!

On arrival in Loughrea, we awaited our taxi in a local pub, and of course were quick to sample a genuine glass of Guinness each.  In fact, a few glasses of Guinness!  A local chap, in the pub, offered, and took us to Ballinakill in his car, just a typical example of the Irish hospitality.

 After being welcomed at Cartron house, we joined in the Barbeque, and met our host “Larry”, the owner of the fleet of Gypsy Caravans and horses, who began telling us a few points about our week ahead.   The next day, after visiting Galway City, Larry showed us our caravan, which was a lovely red and blue colour, and looked a typical “Gypsy Caravan”.  It was well equipped for four people to stay in, so with just the two of us, there was plenty of room.  On entering from the front (where the shafts for the horse were), the kitchen was on the right, and seating for three or four people on the left.  This seat pulled out to form one of the double beds.  Half way along, and each side, were two small wardrobes with plenty of storage space for us.  Just beyond that were two long seats each side, with a table for four in the middle.  This also, all went down into another double bed.  Just above, was a rear window, looking out onto the “boot”, where one stored the lighting battery, gas, water, and of course horse food, for our horse, who we were about to meet!

Larry took us to the adjacent field to meet SAM, our horse.  He was a white and brown male Welsh Cob (skewbald)(16hh) sixteen hands high, thick set horse.  As he came over to us he looked enormous, and I remember thinking, “please be a nice horse and do as you’re told please” He was to be a very quiet, responsive and good mannered animal.  Larry showed us how to harness him up in readiness to connect him to our caravan.  This we had to do each morning, after collecting Sam from his field, on whichever farm we stayed at throughout our tour of the area during the week, and then unharnessing him each evening of course, on arrival at our farm stops.

Once harnessed up, I then walked him over to our caravan, some 100yards away on the lawn of Cartron House.  Larry asked me to reverse him into the shafts ready to connect him up.  Now I can reverse a car, an artic, and a bus!  So, how does one reverse a horse into a narrow space?  Well, it’s a bit like reversing with a trailer onto your car!  One has to pull backwards whilst talking to the horse, and push his head to the right, if you wish his rear to go left.  Sam was very understanding, and pretty much knew what he was doing, even if I didn’t!  Once in between the shafts, Larry showed us how to fix and strap all the components on the horse to the shafts to make it all safe and most importantly comfortable for Sam!

 OK!  Now we’re ready for off!  It’s last minute instructions from Larry, and he leads us away, out through the gate, and along the road on our route, which Larry has marked out for us on the map he provided, also stating that Sam knew the way, and where he was going! Mm!  Sam had a horsy sense of humour, testing us here and there as we went!  Larry walked with us for about 300 yards, then let go and shouted “Goodbye, and enjoy it”.

One could almost sense the thoughts of Sam, as he heard his master shout those words!!  We trundled along quite happily, and I said to Dee, “Let’s try a few stop and starts”.  Now I don’t know about you, but I just shouted “Stop Sam”, and assumed that’s ok.  With Dee giggling, I soon learnt that the words were “whoa Sam” (to stop) and “walk on Sam” (to go).  Simple!  As I mentioned, Sam had a sense of humour and must have thought, “I’ll test them”  So, stopping was ok, but unless you kept the reins taut, Sam would just move on again when he thought he would!  That was actually ok most of the time, but we learnt to make him realise who is in control here! By making him wait until we were ready to move on!  We had a very good relationship from then on, and Sam was wonderful! 

Next came our first turning, a right hand one.  Oh dear, no mirrors!  So, I had to get down and look first (also no flashers or semaphores or Tower to ask!) then lead Sam round the corner, getting back on once into the next road.  We soon got the hang of everything, and were able to do all the manoeuvres, or most, whilst sitting at the front and looking back for other traffic.

 We just ambled along each day, taking in the Irish air, and the beautiful countryside, with its lush green fields gliding by, as we plodded our way around the route.  We travelled for about 5 to 6 hours a day, arriving at our farm stops well before darkness, as there are no lights fitted to the caravan, or our horsy!  We would make several stops a day for a cuppa, and or eats, or just simply to gaze at the view.  We were a tad late at one of our stops, because we went a few miles on the wrong road, some 2hrs almost, as the map showed buildings as landmarks to turn at, which we had not seen.  Mainly due to the fact that the map was some 25 years out of date, so Larry told us later!!  We wondered why this road had many heavy lorries on it, but even Sam didn’t tell us then, and he was very calm with all the extra traffic! Bless him!  Later that evening, the locals in the pub said they had seen us on the wrong road, but had just left us because they assumed we were quite happy.  We were, although doing a “U” turn on a busy road was interesting to come back again!!

 One farm we stayed at was a dairy farm, and we sampled fresh milk on our breakfast the next morning!  Lovely! With Sam having wandered around the caravan, looking into the kitchen door, as if to say, “Hurry up then”

 One of our stops, at which we decided to stay two nights, (by the way, each night was 16 Euros total) was a beautiful small town called “Mountshannon”, with gorgeous views out across the small port, with all it’s sailing and cabin boats moored up.  A very tranquil area.  It was on our way from here, heading back towards Ballinakill, that we had to climb a very long steady hill, up into a mountainous area that Sam kept stopping.  I got down and walked with him, and chatted to him to encourage him to keep going.  After several “stops”, we made the top, and stopped for tea break.  Concerned for Sam, we chatted to a local farmer, who laughed, saying that Sam was a charmer!  Why should he keep going when we were giving him lots of attention!!  Crafty little……. !!!!!!

We moved on, taking in the breathtaking views of Ireland’s country, chatting and talking to Sam also!  Eventually, we came full circle back to Ballinakill, where Larry and other holidaymakers greeted us.  I parked up the caravan, unharnessed Sam for the last time, and walked him to his “home” field, whereupon Dee gave him his daily “brushing”, before he galloped off to have a roll around on the grass.

 We slept our final night in the caravan, and then left the following morning for home in the UK.  We bid our farewells to all, but mainly SAM.  We’d had a brilliant, relaxing holiday, in Ireland, where the Irish are so welcoming, and hospitable, (not to mention the Guinness), and this was a holiday we would recommend to anyone!

Ahh! Such good memories!

Neil and Dee