FigJam
Well-Known Member
I had the BEST day yesterday!
Hopalong has now been hacking out for almost 2 months, we are doing plenty trot work and regular canters in straight lines and she is still feeling keen and well. Since the only travel she has done in the last year has been to visit the vet for her op/check ups, I have been keen to get her off the yard for something fun that she can do.
Hopalong initially tried to sabotage this outing (maybe she thought it would be a vet visit?!) by losing a shoe on Thursday.
I only discovered this at 6.45pm and thought "what are the chances of getting farrier to fix it so late in the week?". Sent a hopeful text and got a call back 10mins later with promise to swing past the next day and sort her out. Lovely farrier got left some beer along with pile of cash as a big thank you and to keep him sweet. Honestly... 10 months on box/field rest and not a single shoe lost...! 
So yesterday Hopalong and I went to the BEACH!!!
We met up with daveismycat and the lovely M who were our ridden company. applestroodle and the super-cute Dug joined us on foot along with a workmate of mine who has a 9 year old daughter who is horse mad and lives locally. In addition, Mr FigJam was dragged along with camera in tow to capture the action.
After daveismycat had a slight panic about having forgotten a girth (luckily I'd chucked in a spare!) and I had a panic at Hopalong feeling off behind (girth a hole too tight, poor H.
), we toddled off through the salt marsh area to get to the beach.
Obligatory "bat ears" shot with Dug being very brave standing in front of her!
(This is probably about 1/10th of the whole beach length, the stretch behind us out of shot is massive)
Started off with a wee trot around both ponies quite cheery but behaving.
We then had a wee canter and I was most surprised to find Hopalong being quite polite! I think she was just being a bit slow on realising where she was though as subsequent canters got less and less polite!
Next up was to try convince the pair of them that waves really aren't all that scary and to get their feet wet. M wasn't so convinced! Hopalong was much braver than last time I attempted to get her in the waves, but still attempting to leap sideways away from waves.
Managed to get her in a decent amount of water and had a wee trot/canter through causing much splashing.
We then had another run along the beach and back, letting the handbrake off properly this time and Hopalong was off! Found it a bit of a struggle convincing her to pull up once we'd done a fly past of Mr FigJam and his camera- she didn't see why we should stop when there was still beach in front of us!
Dug joined in;
Discovered that my new hat and silk are easily parted when you combine turbo-speed Hopalong with a windy day at the beach... had to loop back and retrieve it from the sand twice! (after I retrieved it the first time, I attempted to canter with one hand on hat and one hand on reins, but had no hope of pulling her up with only one hand and so had to sacrifice hat silk coming off for brakes!) A couple wee stitches required to keep it in place in future me thinks...!
We then took a loop around the peninsula, a nice mooch through the forested section and had a good blether while ponies were in donkey-mode again. However... this section passes a farm park and in this farm park live evil horse-eating llamas! Luckily, Hopalong was alert to this danger and did a pretty good impersonation of a llama the minute they were in sight!
The evil llama then proceeded to trot along the fence line beside us which was not appreciated by Hopalong, we got some very collected trot and canter work here, she was desperate to bolt for safety but managed to contain herself mostly. Poor M just sighed, rolled her eyes and carried on as normal after and initial "wahhh" moment!
We then jig-jogged back to the carpark and safety!
Popped her on the lead rope and back into donkey-mode for work mate's daughter to have a wee sit on and she was a wee superstar, didn't put a hoof out of place and had a wee walk/trot around with her.
I then spent the afternoon catching up on Euro eventing XC and SJ which has rounded off the best Sunday in a long time.
Next steps are that we go back to the vet for a final (hopefully!) check up a week on Monday to see what he thinks of her now she's been back in work and regained some muscle/fitness. Fingers crossed he gives us the green light to carry on and get back to jumping and starting some schooling again.
Oh, and applestroodle brought me a fabby pressie of mega-fresh eggs from her chooks which I transformed from this;
(I love the eggbox!)
To this;
And on Saturday I was visiting my folks and took their wee dog to the beach, just a gratuitous shot of him as he is very cute.
Hopalong has now been hacking out for almost 2 months, we are doing plenty trot work and regular canters in straight lines and she is still feeling keen and well. Since the only travel she has done in the last year has been to visit the vet for her op/check ups, I have been keen to get her off the yard for something fun that she can do.
Hopalong initially tried to sabotage this outing (maybe she thought it would be a vet visit?!) by losing a shoe on Thursday.
I only discovered this at 6.45pm and thought "what are the chances of getting farrier to fix it so late in the week?". Sent a hopeful text and got a call back 10mins later with promise to swing past the next day and sort her out. Lovely farrier got left some beer along with pile of cash as a big thank you and to keep him sweet. Honestly... 10 months on box/field rest and not a single shoe lost...! So yesterday Hopalong and I went to the BEACH!!!
We met up with daveismycat and the lovely M who were our ridden company. applestroodle and the super-cute Dug joined us on foot along with a workmate of mine who has a 9 year old daughter who is horse mad and lives locally. In addition, Mr FigJam was dragged along with camera in tow to capture the action.After daveismycat had a slight panic about having forgotten a girth (luckily I'd chucked in a spare!) and I had a panic at Hopalong feeling off behind (girth a hole too tight, poor H.
), we toddled off through the salt marsh area to get to the beach.
Obligatory "bat ears" shot with Dug being very brave standing in front of her!
(This is probably about 1/10th of the whole beach length, the stretch behind us out of shot is massive)
Started off with a wee trot around both ponies quite cheery but behaving.
We then had a wee canter and I was most surprised to find Hopalong being quite polite! I think she was just being a bit slow on realising where she was though as subsequent canters got less and less polite!
Next up was to try convince the pair of them that waves really aren't all that scary and to get their feet wet. M wasn't so convinced! Hopalong was much braver than last time I attempted to get her in the waves, but still attempting to leap sideways away from waves.
Managed to get her in a decent amount of water and had a wee trot/canter through causing much splashing.
We then had another run along the beach and back, letting the handbrake off properly this time and Hopalong was off!
Found it a bit of a struggle convincing her to pull up once we'd done a fly past of Mr FigJam and his camera- she didn't see why we should stop when there was still beach in front of us!
Dug joined in;
Discovered that my new hat and silk are easily parted when you combine turbo-speed Hopalong with a windy day at the beach... had to loop back and retrieve it from the sand twice! (after I retrieved it the first time, I attempted to canter with one hand on hat and one hand on reins, but had no hope of pulling her up with only one hand and so had to sacrifice hat silk coming off for brakes!) A couple wee stitches required to keep it in place in future me thinks...!
We then took a loop around the peninsula, a nice mooch through the forested section and had a good blether while ponies were in donkey-mode again. However... this section passes a farm park and in this farm park live evil horse-eating llamas!
Luckily, Hopalong was alert to this danger and did a pretty good impersonation of a llama the minute they were in sight! The evil llama then proceeded to trot along the fence line beside us which was not appreciated by Hopalong, we got some very collected trot and canter work here, she was desperate to bolt for safety but managed to contain herself mostly. Poor M just sighed, rolled her eyes and carried on as normal after and initial "wahhh" moment!
We then jig-jogged back to the carpark and safety!
Popped her on the lead rope and back into donkey-mode for work mate's daughter to have a wee sit on and she was a wee superstar, didn't put a hoof out of place and had a wee walk/trot around with her.
I then spent the afternoon catching up on Euro eventing XC and SJ which has rounded off the best Sunday in a long time.
Next steps are that we go back to the vet for a final (hopefully!) check up a week on Monday to see what he thinks of her now she's been back in work and regained some muscle/fitness. Fingers crossed he gives us the green light to carry on and get back to jumping and starting some schooling again.
Oh, and applestroodle brought me a fabby pressie of mega-fresh eggs from her chooks which I transformed from this;
(I love the eggbox!)
To this;
And on Saturday I was visiting my folks and took their wee dog to the beach, just a gratuitous shot of him as he is very cute.
It was indeed John Muir, didn't realise you were so close, will send you invite next time. 
It is rubbish, isn't it? But it makes you appreciate the little things all the more. This time last year, a trip to the beach would have been fun, but not the kid on Christmas Day feeling I had yesterday! 
