supporting The Tymes Trust is Registered Charity No.1080985 Tymes Trust Head Office: 9 Patching Hall Lane, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 4DH

Ride Log Participants were asked to send regular updates of their progress. Their comments and experiences are presented here, together with photographs where available. Further photographs of the Ride are available in the Gallery Pre-Ride   18th August - 21st August 2001 Bristol, Bath and the Journey by Road to Lulworth Cove Week One:   22nd August - 26th August 2001 Lulworth Cove (Dorset) - Bath updated 18th September Week Two:  27th August - 2nd September 2001 Bath - Dorstone (Herefordshire) updated 10th January 2002 Week Three:  3rd September - 9th September 2001 Dorstone - Penkridge (south Staffordshire) updated 9th February 2002 Week Four:  10th September - 16th September 2001 Penkridge - Chelmorton (near Buxton) updated 9th December Week Five:  17th September - 23rd September 2001 Chelmorton - Bacup (Lancashire) updated 31st October Week Six:  24th September - 30th September 2001 Bacup, Berwick - Edinburgh, and Haydock Park updated 10th January 2002 Week Seven:  1st October - 6th October 2001 Hereford Races and Chepstow Races updated 10th January 2002 Post-Odyssey:  January - February 2002 Postponed Sections updated 25th April 2002 Post-Odyssey:  21st March 2002 Horse Whisperer Demonstration updated 10th April 2002 Pre-Ride:   Bristol and Bath   Further photographs of this section are available in Gallery 1   Appearance at Horseworld, Bristol Saturday August 18th Kaan's public duties gets off to a gentle start with the Open Day of the Akhal Teke Society at Horseworld near Bristol. He is a minor player in a parade of some outstanding Akhal-Teke horses, including the stallion presented to John Major by Turkmenistan's president in 1991. Bath Races Sunday 19th August Kaan gets his chance to shine, at Bath Races where he has the course all to himself for a few brief moments of glory. Jerry Watkins, manager of Friends of Bristol Horses, gallops him past the winning post dressed in Turkoman costume, and raises a big cheer from the crowd. It's also the first outing for the trailer covered in adverts and good wishes from our sponsors. On a stand in front of it we display our various goods for sale and hand out Odyssey leaflets and literature from all of the principal M.E. societies. Sadly, although the Odyssey team today numbers 9 people, we don't raise as much money as we'd hoped, as we find ourselves competing with two other charities. But we learn a lesson from their greater experience. A quick phone call to Jane - "Bring us some buckets!" Journey to Lulworth Cove Monday/Tuesday 20th/21st August A quiet time, travelling on slowly to East Lulworth and giving Kaan his first look at Lulworth Cove. He is completely unfazed by the steep, narrow lane, the pushchairs and wheelchairs, the children waving flags or ice-creams, and is only mildly surprised to find the high tide lapping the slip road just below his feet. Unfortunately he is less laid-back about the horses with whom he is sharing stabling. Whereas in March his social skills were well-honed, three months' confinement due to foot-and-mouth disease followed by a period at stud has given him completely different ideas about mixing with other horses. Week One:   Lulworth Cove, Dorset - Bath   Further photographs of this section are available in Gallery 1   Lulworth Cove - Launch Day! Wednesday 22nd August The weather is wonderful, but the news is bad (for us at least). At 8.30a.m. we learn that Jerry, who was to anchor the team for this first week as rider and driver alternately, cannot come as his deputy has prematurely gone into labour. Everyone else, though, is there and first to arrive is Brough Scott, our first celebrity rider. Next are representatives from Basingstoke and Dorset M.E. groups who have kindly brought us cheques, which Brough is to accept on our behalf. Brough Scott accepts a cheque on behalf of the Odyssey from Richard Westall of the Basingstoke M.E. Support Group ©2001 Richard Westall Jane Colby and Keith Harley from Tymes Trust arrive bearing four plastic buckets plastered withTymes Trust stickers which the Odyssey team - 8 today - immediately put to good use. Interviews with local press and radio get underway. After the cheques have been presented, Kaan is brought to the quay, Brough mounts and the journey begins. Brough's diary entry, dictated as he was riding:   "The first few miles of 500 he's doing from Lulworth Cove right up to the Scottish borders, the whole length of England; just one horse, the Akhal-Teke Kaan, all in aid of M.E. and the Tymes Trust that does such good work for it. We're walking through the forest just north of Wareham. "Ruth is accompanying me, with her particularly high-pinned palomino Lancer who apparently on Sunday was feeling very old and decrepit, and 21 and rheumaticky. We have just come through the roundabout system at Wareham ©2001 Sue Alexander. Used with kind permission 2001 Odyssey for M.E. visit to Lulworth Cove courtesy of Lulworth Castle Estate ©2001 Sue Alexander. Used with kind permission "Kaan is looking magnificent, as Akhal Tekes do, though quite lean. He's very full of beans for two reasons: one, that he's ready to do 500 miles; the second, not quite so easy to organise, is he has been spending his his beans, if you see what I mean, on some mares in his other rôle as a stallion. What he's not got into his head yet is the fact that the three horses he's been accompanied by - that's a big Gelderlander, called Sid, a large old white thing called Rupert, and now Lancer are only there as friends. The moment they go ahead he starts screaming and shouting and all that sort of nonsense. So my purpose this afternoon is to introduce him to the manners of an ordinary riding horse! "Kaan's from Turkmenistan (see more) - I went last year; a very wild and poor country, but it does have those marvellous Akhal-Teke horses, which have been there for over two-and-a-half thousand years - a particular strain of horse older and more athletic than the Arab and the actual origin, we think, of the thoroughbred. Gill has a beautiful horse here who, when he realises the difference between friendly relations and carnal relations will be the perfect hack. "...At the moment we're riding through really heavily gladed fir trees on either side of us, with purple heather ringing the ride, with green grass up ahead. Lancer is a fine animal, but he clearly looks too beautiful, because when we got behind him again just now, this ridiculous Kaan creature immediately seemed to think he was the most beautiful blonde he'd ever seen. We had to explain that his job is to go 500 miles!" Brough Scott has also written an article on the Odyssey, 'Kaan keeps a date with history', which appeared in the 4th October edition of Horse and Hound. Lytchett Matravers - Alvediston Thursday 23rd August Gill: I'm climbing into the saddle with some trepidation after Brough's reports of yesterday. In fact Kaan, on his own today and with twenty miles under his belt, is as quiet as a mouse. We pass through roads and tracks among pleasant farmland, and past what I recognise as Charlborough Park by the tower on its hill - the building which is supposed to have inspired Hardy's "Two on a Tower". On our way to Badbury Rings, our first rendezvous with the caravan, we go through Sturminster Marshall, a typical pretty Dorset village with thatched rooves, cottage gardens and hanging baskets full of late summer flowers, a small, square grey stone church. A signpost tells me I'm on the "Hardy Way". Badbury Rings looms out of the mist ahead of us - a little small and disappointing. I suppose nothing looks very impressive on this sort of grey, foggy day (though at least the rain has stopped). I've wanted for a long time to come here, one of the possible sites of Mount Badon where King Arthur walloped the Saxons. Unusually for hill forts, it's got a knot of trees on the top, and one great bleached white trunk in the middle of the side I'm looking at. Well, I don't know where we are. Kaan and I were batting along at a good lick, blessing the Romans for their engineering, when the way was blocked by a cornfield. I made a compass error, and am way off route. Only I could get lost on a Roman road. I make it back on to the old road, get lost again, find it again... and the caravan. I ride on through a lovely late summer evening of hazy sunshine down into Sixpenny Handley, where we box up to go on to our stabling at Alvediston. The time wasted by my bad navigation means that we must return here to carry on tomorrow. Our billet is a rather seedy old manor house, with a once magnificent stable and coaching block. The house itself lies beyond a circular carriage sweep, and we ring a bell hanging on a chain and peer through a half open, rather gnarled heavy oak door into a fusty hall where a splendid but rather decrepit staircase climbs up beside a grandfather clock with a cracked face. There is no reception for our mobile phones in the valley here, and we must unhitch and drive back into the village to phone home. I wish we hadn't bothered, for I learn that my deep-freeze has broken down and flooded the kitchen. Sixpenny Handley - Crockerton Friday 24th Augus Jenny: I've had ME for eleven years, but have recovered enough to ride or drive for an hour. We've had major problems being short of our main rider/driver, so I have been driving the camper van with the trailer. It has no power steering and is not automatic as I'm used to, so my legs and arms are being tested to the limits - as well as my brain, to map-read and drive at the same time. (Only ME sufferers will understand how this is extremely difficult and very draining.) I am riding Kaan for the first time, through various villages and rural paths. When he gets to know you he is a wonderful horse and you can do almost anything with him, except near other horses he does not know. He has a lovely free forward-going walk which covers the ground quickly; when in trot it feels as if he could trot for ever. When you manage to find a good bridle path or verge his canter is magic - so smooth, and he has such long legs, he could bound from one county to another. A very tempting log has come up, but Kaan has spotted the greater attraction of a lovely chestnut mare who is charging up and down the field right beside us. A car came along and stopped exactly where I needed to go to get out of the way. My thoughts were, "I must not let him get near the fence." So I just circled him very tightly. We proceeded along a lane with very tempting bridle tracks leading off, but it was getting very dark now at about 8 pm. So we boxed across the busy main road to Charlie Lane's at Crockerton, where Charlie and Jo made us very welcome with a lovely meal and a hot bath, just what we both needed. Crockerton - Wellow Saturday 25th August Charlie Lane, former Commanding Officer of the King's Troop and Chef d'Equipe to the British Three-Day-Event team during victories in the European and World Championships: I'm about to disappear into the Longleat Woods. It's very warm and muggy, but noticeably cooler now that we're in the trees. Our target is Longleat House, and we're going to head up to Heaven's Gate, which is a beautiful view on top of the hill where you look down on to the house. Kaan is quiet and relaxed. We're riding quietly along a ridge now. The ground's really showing the rain we've had over the last few weeks, and it's still a bit soggy. Kaan, because of his fine limbs and small feet, tends to sink into the mud, like walking in stiletto heels across a lawn - a feeling I have to say I'm not familiar with. The wood we're travelling through is largely coniferous with some very mature trees, stretching sixty or eighty feet into the air and very straight, all timber grown by the Longleat Estate for sale. We're going to join the road by the Keeper's Cottage. The Longleat Estate Keeper is quite famous round here because he and a few of the boys from Horningsham have just done a nude calendar with a nice picture of him standing in the water in his waders and nothing else. We've just met our first people since we set off. We're coming round the edge of Centre Parks; you really wouldn't know it was here, this funny little holiday village hidden in the woods from everything around it. It has a high wire fence all the way round, which gives the impression that you've suddenly come across a hidden military installation or something from a James Bond movie. We've just come out at the top of the park at Heaven's Gate and are looking down across the Estate to the castle. Heaven's Gate has been ruined by some extraordinary stone statues that Lord Bath's put in place. Charlie Lane at Heaven's Gate Now we come out in sight of the Safari Park. Lots of the drivers are slowing down as they come past us - perhaps they think the two horses here are part of the attraction. You can tell it's hot, because the two rhinos have lain down to go to sleep. If they close their eyes they can imagine they're back home in the Serengeti. You don't meet too many rhinos out riding in Wiltshire Wellow - Bath Sunday 26th August Sue: I thoroughly enjoyed my participation in the Odyssey at Bath on Sunday 26th August. It began with manning the Odyssey stall outside the Pump Room while our rider, in Turkoman costume, rode Kaan round the streets of Bath. Photograph ©2001 Sue Alexander They created quite a stir, not least because Kaan paused to admire himself in every shop window, whinnying at the handsome beast he saw there! There was encouragingly more interest in the stall than there had been the previous Sunday at the racecourse, giving a positive feeling that as the Odyssey progresses north, people will show more interest in, and learn more about, both M.E. and the Akhal-Teke horse. The best part of the day, for me, was spent standing in the trailer with Kaan outside the Pump Room while he ate his lunch, listening to the murmur of conversation from the campervan, Kaan's ears always flicking forward at the sound of Gill's voice. Once finished with his food, he stood sleepily resting his head on my shoulder as I stroked him, so relaxed and gentle. An instant transformation occurred the moment he came down the trailer ramp and caught sight of Dr Stephanie Cook (who was to ride the next leg) and a press photographer. His alert gaze swept round the elegant regency crescent and he immediately struck a pose to match his surroundings. Regally surveying al around him, he stood, much like the Baker hunting the Snark, 'erect and sublime, for one moment of time' (scarcely more, for he really doesn't enjoy standing still), truly posing like a complete professional - and looking stunningly beautiful. Julia and Alice Root present Dr Cook with her Odyssey rosette, a sweatshirt courtesy of Dengie, and an orchid in the Royal Crescent Walking alongside Steph Cook as she rode Kaan from the Royal Crescent almost to the racecourse stables, where he'd be spending the night, I was most impressed by Kaan's aplomb in dealing with the worst traffic that Bath town centre could offer him. It was a far cry from the horse-drawn carriages of Jane Austen's Bath and he didn't turn a hair, but took it all in his relaxed, exuberant stride. Perhaps it's as well that it wasn't the Bath of Jane Austen's day, judging by his dancing and skittering when he did see another horse, or indeed smell one a field away as we left the town! The longest, steepest hill I've ever encountered led us out of Bath towards the racecourse and I amazed myself by walking up it at Kaan's pace, hardly noticing because I was in such good company (both human and equine). Even Kaan puffed a little from time to time - to show support or to take the mickey? You can never be sure with him! I am sure that both he and his rider were enjoying themselves enormously and it was a privilege to be a part of it all and to support, in however small a way, the courage and determination that is enabling the Odyssey to take place. Stephanie Cook and Kaan pose for photos at the Royal Crescent Photograph ©2001 Sue Alexander Stephanie Cook waves a cheery goodbye to onlookers as she makes her way towards the racecourse Photograph ©2001 Bath Chronicle. This picture is reproduced here by kind permission of the Bath Chronicle and may not be used for other purposes without their express permission.   A message from Dr Cook: "It was a pleasure to be part of this fantastic venture in aid of The Tymes Trust. It is important to help raise awareness of the charity and the wonderful work that it is doing to support young people suffering from M.E. " Kaan is a beautiful horse and is himself an example of how it is possible to overcome adverse circumstances and it was an honour to have had the chance of riding him. " I wish everyone concerned in this venture all the best for the rest of the ride." Week Two >