Just checking in after our fun ride today!
Really pleased, actually- he loaded pretty well both ways, travelled well, unloaded sensibly, which is all a big tick! When we arrived he was incredibly excited, and was very much in a "let's go" frame of mind. We took the first few fields pretty steadily (with my friend's saint of a horse acting as a front break). Then there was a short section of road work, and he is so sensible on the roads he realised he had to chill out.
After that, bar a little bit of jogging and silliness at times, he really settled and was really good. Went first/last/in the middle, really sensible when we were cantering, happy to pop some tiny brush jumps. Saw all sorts of things and was also happy with horses passing in both directions.
It would almost have been better if we could have gone backwards, and had a nice blast through the fields to finish, but overall, I was really pleased with him, and it was definitely a successful outing. Everyone seems keen to go out again, so hopefully we can find something else to go to soon! I think the more we do, the better he will be (and also, the better I will be- half the tenseness at the start was definitely my fault, because I got tense, he got tense and it was a little bit of a vicious cycle).
Looks like some lovely horses on this thread, I hope everyone has been enjoying them this weekend!