A success!
21 October 2007 21:07![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glenatronWe went out for a hack this afternoon, with both of us on our ponies.
There were no falls, no scary moments, one big spook on the lane when a spaniel decided to charge out and bark at us but it was quickly called back and Zorro comes back down from things like that very quickly. We made it out onto the common and got to do a decent length loop without either pony wanting to run home ( well, there were points where they did want to run, but we didn't want to make going flat out the default speed for the common so they didn't get to and they were fine with that) and the whole experience was really positive.
There weren't many people out (rugby related hangovers across much of England perhaps) so we really got to enjoy the quiet and I was able to make the most of being part of the wildlife- not only could I see more than I'm used to being able to on foot, but what I could see was less bothered by our presence.
Zorro happily splashed through puddles and even Small decided he could recover from his fear of the mysterious and unnatural phenomenon of water on the ground enough to drink from the muddiest puddle on the entire circuit. Zorro wanted to drink from that one as well (I swear he is half labrador) and having done so and finding himself by Small's girth he gave![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sleepsy_mouse's foot a good nudge and then dribbled brown puddle water into her boot. He's all charm.
Not a great picture - I didn't want to fiddle around in the saddle to get my camera out on the more attractive parts of the ride in case I upset pony but one of the first ones I've taken while riding out.
One of the other horses from the yard caught up with us going up the hill so we were an escort team for them for the rest of the ride, which seemed to make our ponies feel very important.
The whole thing was very uneventful which is exactly what we had hoped for, although there was one point where Small pony decided to scamper up a very steep bank getting out the way of a car and then scamper back down it's even steeper side, presumably to show that he could still cut it as an eventing pony if he wanted to. He's very sure footed,sleepsy_mouse was very surprised.
There were no falls, no scary moments, one big spook on the lane when a spaniel decided to charge out and bark at us but it was quickly called back and Zorro comes back down from things like that very quickly. We made it out onto the common and got to do a decent length loop without either pony wanting to run home ( well, there were points where they did want to run, but we didn't want to make going flat out the default speed for the common so they didn't get to and they were fine with that) and the whole experience was really positive.
There weren't many people out (rugby related hangovers across much of England perhaps) so we really got to enjoy the quiet and I was able to make the most of being part of the wildlife- not only could I see more than I'm used to being able to on foot, but what I could see was less bothered by our presence.
Zorro happily splashed through puddles and even Small decided he could recover from his fear of the mysterious and unnatural phenomenon of water on the ground enough to drink from the muddiest puddle on the entire circuit. Zorro wanted to drink from that one as well (I swear he is half labrador) and having done so and finding himself by Small's girth he gave
sleepsy_mouse's foot a good nudge and then dribbled brown puddle water into her boot. He's all charm.Not a great picture - I didn't want to fiddle around in the saddle to get my camera out on the more attractive parts of the ride in case I upset pony but one of the first ones I've taken while riding out.
One of the other horses from the yard caught up with us going up the hill so we were an escort team for them for the rest of the ride, which seemed to make our ponies feel very important.
The whole thing was very uneventful which is exactly what we had hoped for, although there was one point where Small pony decided to scamper up a very steep bank getting out the way of a car and then scamper back down it's even steeper side, presumably to show that he could still cut it as an eventing pony if he wanted to. He's very sure footed,
sleepsy_mouse was very surprised.