JenHunt
Well-Known Member
OH and I went out for a hack on saturday afternoon - he took my sisters horse (in his bitless bridle) and I went out bareback on Ron. It was a lovely afternoon and we were in no rush, so decided to join two hacks together to be out a bit longer. 
We hacked up the road towards the head of the valley, then turned off to cross the valley. We had to go up the boys favourite galloping field, but that's fine as its a lot of fun to go hell for leather for 30seconds knowing they'll stop at the top. This pic is from earlier in the year but it's the same field!
then when we'd got our breath back we carried along, just in the edge of the forestry on the path. When we asked for a trot Ron thought this was very exciting and tried very hard to do extended trot. I just about contained him.
As we came to the end of the forestry we turned left to go up the hill (instead of right to go home). this made Ron quite cross as he clearly thought he'd done enough for the day.
We had a trot up the last bit of the hill on the road (as the road surface there is good and they were full of themselves.) This lead to me nearly falling off laughing at just how silly my horse is! He pointblank refused to listen to me, and went into his biggest extended trot, and if I tried too hard to bring him back he'd just canter... But he's not very good at extended trot because he won't lengthen his neck so his toes just go pointy and makes me laugh
.
We paused on the nice big verge at the top of the hill to look at the view, finish off laughing and for the boys to get their breath. Then we set off down the hill. It's not very far, and it's a very very quiet lane, but the road surface is positively evil. Even walking with 2 feet on the rough (there's no verge down the worst bit) the boys were slipping a bit. Then Tom slipped right down, ending up sitting like a dog on his hocks. Just as OH was launching himself off, Tom stood up. He was not obviously hurt, and apart from being sore momentarily he was ok, but obviously worried as he went into joggy mode. We took it very easy coming down the rest of that road but Tom was obviously still worried and joggy.
As we came to the last bit of narrow road (having gone through the village) a car stopped to let us come through, and as we went to trot on Tom's back feet both slipped and he kind of went over on his fetlock (I can't really describe it - it went how they go when they're resting a hid leg) on one back foot then the other in the next stride. For a few strides he was quite lame
stupid effing council who won't sort the roads out! (seriously, in the 25 years we've lived there these two bits of road have been resurfaced once!).
On getting home, Tom has grazed one hock, and scuffed a coronet band, but nothing serious. He was a touch sore on Sunday morning so he's had a couple of days off. But he'll be fine.
On Sunday morning (after the rugby) I took Ron out. I did put a saddle on him, and it's just as well as he was in a seriously funny mood. NOT. He was being super sensitive to everything. I almost considered turning round after 200yds to fish out his nose net as every bit of noise/leaf/insect was making him wave his head about. He shied at horse poo on the road, tried to run off when a dry leaf rattled across the road behind him, he eyed up a gate for jumping when I asked him to stop and open it, he argued with me the whole way round about what speed we should be doing (If he'd had his way we'd have done 20 minutes of canter and gallop, not 40 minutes of walk trot and canter). He nearly cacked himself when a cow mooed from the other side of a hedge (you'd have thought the hedge mooed from his reaction) and he tried to run over a child on a mountain bike when I asked him to ride on the verge to avoid the child. >| naughty pony
I'll be glad when hunting starts and I can get some proper miles into him! This is all autumn grass flush and no hard feed yet!
We hacked up the road towards the head of the valley, then turned off to cross the valley. We had to go up the boys favourite galloping field, but that's fine as its a lot of fun to go hell for leather for 30seconds knowing they'll stop at the top. This pic is from earlier in the year but it's the same field!
then when we'd got our breath back we carried along, just in the edge of the forestry on the path. When we asked for a trot Ron thought this was very exciting and tried very hard to do extended trot. I just about contained him.
As we came to the end of the forestry we turned left to go up the hill (instead of right to go home). this made Ron quite cross as he clearly thought he'd done enough for the day. We had a trot up the last bit of the hill on the road (as the road surface there is good and they were full of themselves.) This lead to me nearly falling off laughing at just how silly my horse is! He pointblank refused to listen to me, and went into his biggest extended trot, and if I tried too hard to bring him back he'd just canter... But he's not very good at extended trot because he won't lengthen his neck so his toes just go pointy and makes me laugh
.We paused on the nice big verge at the top of the hill to look at the view, finish off laughing and for the boys to get their breath. Then we set off down the hill. It's not very far, and it's a very very quiet lane, but the road surface is positively evil. Even walking with 2 feet on the rough (there's no verge down the worst bit) the boys were slipping a bit. Then Tom slipped right down, ending up sitting like a dog on his hocks. Just as OH was launching himself off, Tom stood up. He was not obviously hurt, and apart from being sore momentarily he was ok, but obviously worried as he went into joggy mode. We took it very easy coming down the rest of that road but Tom was obviously still worried and joggy.
As we came to the last bit of narrow road (having gone through the village) a car stopped to let us come through, and as we went to trot on Tom's back feet both slipped and he kind of went over on his fetlock (I can't really describe it - it went how they go when they're resting a hid leg) on one back foot then the other in the next stride. For a few strides he was quite lame
stupid effing council who won't sort the roads out! (seriously, in the 25 years we've lived there these two bits of road have been resurfaced once!). On getting home, Tom has grazed one hock, and scuffed a coronet band, but nothing serious. He was a touch sore on Sunday morning so he's had a couple of days off. But he'll be fine.
On Sunday morning (after the rugby) I took Ron out. I did put a saddle on him, and it's just as well as he was in a seriously funny mood. NOT. He was being super sensitive to everything. I almost considered turning round after 200yds to fish out his nose net as every bit of noise/leaf/insect was making him wave his head about. He shied at horse poo on the road, tried to run off when a dry leaf rattled across the road behind him, he eyed up a gate for jumping when I asked him to stop and open it, he argued with me the whole way round about what speed we should be doing (If he'd had his way we'd have done 20 minutes of canter and gallop, not 40 minutes of walk trot and canter). He nearly cacked himself when a cow mooed from the other side of a hedge (you'd have thought the hedge mooed from his reaction
) and he tried to run over a child on a mountain bike when I asked him to ride on the verge to avoid the child. >| naughty ponyI'll be glad when hunting starts and I can get some proper miles into him! This is all autumn grass flush and no hard feed yet!
