Annagain
Well-Known Member
Fun ride number two for Wiggy and me yesterday. This one was very much more of an open field type ride and wow was he excited. I never felt like a didn't have brakes but they did need testing a few times!
As we arrived I popped to the loo and my friend got them off the trailer. When I got back she was chatting to someone. It turned out this was his ex-ex owner (or rather their groom). They sold him 5 years ago to the woman I bought him from. She was there with his previous owner (who then came to join us) and his former field mate. They recognised each other straight away and had a little whicker despite not seeing each other for 5 years. We had a lovely chat and it was great to hear their story matched the version I'd been told. They seemed genuinely pleased to see him out doing fun things as he'd focused very much on dressage in his last home.
The only issue was they started on the ride immediately before us so Wiggy was quite keen to catch up with his old friend. We did a few jumps and he stuck his head down on landing and tanked off after him. He'd slow down when asked but it was a bit of a shock for his halo to slip a tiny bit - and quite nice to see him clearly enjoying himself
. We overtook them as his old fieldmate's companion was putting in a couple of stops and from then on he was still keen but not quite so rude! There were 4 of us and he went in front, behind, alongside, everywhere and was fab no matter where he was. My favourite thing was when he got so excited he kept changing legs behind as we cantered as he didn't know what to do with himself. Had Charlie done that I've have been in bits (although it would probably have been accompanied by a buck in Charlie's case) but Wiggy does it and it makes me laugh.
We did a fair few of the jumps after that and I didn't even choose the smallest option sometimes! I reckon a couple of them must have reached the giant heights of 70cm. Towards the end the fences were hunt rail style jumps in and out of woodland. They were a bit big for us so we'd go on ahead to check the landings (some were a bit deep by the time we got there and we had an old boy with us who has to be careful with the ground he jumps on). At one point I'd managed to slip behind this older horse and the next fence was a bit smaller (but still big for us) so I decided to do it, especially as we had a lead. As my friend cantered off to the fence, Wiggy decided he desperately needed a wee. About 2 minutes later (he REALLY needed that wee) we were then heading towards the fence sans lead! He flew it (to be fair he's never given the impression that he's going to stop) and it felt lovely!
Once again no photos as I'm rubbish. I'm too busy having fun to remember to take them! There may be a pro one to follow. I think I saw a photographer there but it was when he was tanking so I by-passed a couple of fences.
As we arrived I popped to the loo and my friend got them off the trailer. When I got back she was chatting to someone. It turned out this was his ex-ex owner (or rather their groom). They sold him 5 years ago to the woman I bought him from. She was there with his previous owner (who then came to join us) and his former field mate. They recognised each other straight away and had a little whicker despite not seeing each other for 5 years. We had a lovely chat and it was great to hear their story matched the version I'd been told. They seemed genuinely pleased to see him out doing fun things as he'd focused very much on dressage in his last home.
The only issue was they started on the ride immediately before us so Wiggy was quite keen to catch up with his old friend. We did a few jumps and he stuck his head down on landing and tanked off after him. He'd slow down when asked but it was a bit of a shock for his halo to slip a tiny bit - and quite nice to see him clearly enjoying himself
. We overtook them as his old fieldmate's companion was putting in a couple of stops and from then on he was still keen but not quite so rude! There were 4 of us and he went in front, behind, alongside, everywhere and was fab no matter where he was. My favourite thing was when he got so excited he kept changing legs behind as we cantered as he didn't know what to do with himself. Had Charlie done that I've have been in bits (although it would probably have been accompanied by a buck in Charlie's case) but Wiggy does it and it makes me laugh. We did a fair few of the jumps after that and I didn't even choose the smallest option sometimes! I reckon a couple of them must have reached the giant heights of 70cm
. Towards the end the fences were hunt rail style jumps in and out of woodland. They were a bit big for us so we'd go on ahead to check the landings (some were a bit deep by the time we got there and we had an old boy with us who has to be careful with the ground he jumps on). At one point I'd managed to slip behind this older horse and the next fence was a bit smaller (but still big for us) so I decided to do it, especially as we had a lead. As my friend cantered off to the fence, Wiggy decided he desperately needed a wee. About 2 minutes later (he REALLY needed that wee) we were then heading towards the fence sans lead! He flew it (to be fair he's never given the impression that he's going to stop) and it felt lovely! Once again no photos as I'm rubbish. I'm too busy having fun to remember to take them! There may be a pro one to follow. I think I saw a photographer there but it was when he was tanking so I by-passed a couple of fences.
