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glenatronToday has been a long and very pleasant day- we set off early to visit the ponies and ( our original morning plan of going over to visit with our trimmer having fallen through ) set out on a bit of a ride.
We finally got out onto the common where I spent much of my youth mountain biking and I was able to show![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sleepsy_mouse and Small the trails that I know well from back then. It was a gorgeous day and we covered about seven miles around the common, much of it along the ridge in the photograph above that has gorgeous views across the local heathland. Happily the army, who own the common, weren't out there shooting at each other so although we did pass some camo-netted land rovers with soldiers resting nearby we didn't have any scary firefights to avoid.
Also I saw the first butterfly of the year, and the second, all in all I saw about four brimstones, a peacock and what I think were a few commas too. And there was a kestrel over the heath thatsleepsy_mouse spotted, while I could only see a remote control plane.
Although Zorro tensed up once or twice he was absolutely fine, a lot less anxious than yesterday which made the ride a lot more relaxing for me.
When we got back, we had some tea and cake - as one is supposed to - and then fed the boys and went over to visit with our trimmer, Charlie. She has an assortment of waifs and strays she has accumulated, mostly horses that were on the brink of being put down because of bad feet and/or bad behaviour, that she has brought back from the edge and I figured that as she doesn't always have time to exercise them and I need to keep my eye in by riding as many different horses as I can, I could maybe go and help her exercise Donk.
Donk is a lovely big warmblood, about 16.2hh and very bay with smart white socks and a big white flash. He is much more like Small than Zorro, very soft and gentle, but ever so nervous around new people. He knows Charlie and was fine with her butsleepsy_mouse and I were an unknown quantity and not to be trusted. Just working a little bit with him on the ground doing some leading and gentle circle work I put a little more pressure than he could handle at one point and off he went, leaving me with an impressive rope burn and doing a high speed circle of the field we were working in ( with some gorgeous lead changes on the way) before going back and hiding behind Charlie. Note to self: Always wear gloves doing groundwork with a new horse, you know this.
Anyways, we got back on track and I rode him a little in the failing light- by this point the sun was down and as we stepped away from the mounting log a bat fluttered in and circled his head. Proper goth warmblood. We spent a little while ambling along in walk and trot- he is used to working in a pelham bit and I'm not, so I need to get used to that - and he was absolutely lovely, even if he does think I'm still broadly untrustworthy.
Charlie also let me sit for a little bit on her crazy arab Maz. Charlie and Maz are an elite team who get by largely by being totally barking in broadly the same way. There is a cliche about chestnut arab mares that Maz does very little to disperse, but she's a very sweet horse. She goes really nicely in an english hackamore ( or maybe it's a dr cooks, not sure, it has a shanked noseband action but not long shanks ) which again I'm not used to- all these leverage bits are fine, but they operate mostly in one plane and I'm used to working off a snaffle where I can open the rein up wide if I need to get the horse doubled, so riding these guys I feel a bit like someone has stolen my handbrake. More stuff to get used to, no question. We only did a very little bit, as it was almost completely dark by this point, but it was a real pleasure and an honour to ride on Charlie's own horse. We shall certainly be visiting again (they're only one village over from where our ponies live) and I'm sure I'll spend a bit more time with Donk, which I'll enjoy and hopefully once he gets used to the idea he will too.
We finally got out onto the common where I spent much of my youth mountain biking and I was able to show
sleepsy_mouse and Small the trails that I know well from back then. It was a gorgeous day and we covered about seven miles around the common, much of it along the ridge in the photograph above that has gorgeous views across the local heathland. Happily the army, who own the common, weren't out there shooting at each other so although we did pass some camo-netted land rovers with soldiers resting nearby we didn't have any scary firefights to avoid.Also I saw the first butterfly of the year, and the second, all in all I saw about four brimstones, a peacock and what I think were a few commas too. And there was a kestrel over the heath that
sleepsy_mouse spotted, while I could only see a remote control plane.Although Zorro tensed up once or twice he was absolutely fine, a lot less anxious than yesterday which made the ride a lot more relaxing for me.
When we got back, we had some tea and cake - as one is supposed to - and then fed the boys and went over to visit with our trimmer, Charlie. She has an assortment of waifs and strays she has accumulated, mostly horses that were on the brink of being put down because of bad feet and/or bad behaviour, that she has brought back from the edge and I figured that as she doesn't always have time to exercise them and I need to keep my eye in by riding as many different horses as I can, I could maybe go and help her exercise Donk.
Donk is a lovely big warmblood, about 16.2hh and very bay with smart white socks and a big white flash. He is much more like Small than Zorro, very soft and gentle, but ever so nervous around new people. He knows Charlie and was fine with her but
sleepsy_mouse and I were an unknown quantity and not to be trusted. Just working a little bit with him on the ground doing some leading and gentle circle work I put a little more pressure than he could handle at one point and off he went, leaving me with an impressive rope burn and doing a high speed circle of the field we were working in ( with some gorgeous lead changes on the way) before going back and hiding behind Charlie. Note to self: Always wear gloves doing groundwork with a new horse, you know this.Anyways, we got back on track and I rode him a little in the failing light- by this point the sun was down and as we stepped away from the mounting log a bat fluttered in and circled his head. Proper goth warmblood. We spent a little while ambling along in walk and trot- he is used to working in a pelham bit and I'm not, so I need to get used to that - and he was absolutely lovely, even if he does think I'm still broadly untrustworthy.
Charlie also let me sit for a little bit on her crazy arab Maz. Charlie and Maz are an elite team who get by largely by being totally barking in broadly the same way. There is a cliche about chestnut arab mares that Maz does very little to disperse, but she's a very sweet horse. She goes really nicely in an english hackamore ( or maybe it's a dr cooks, not sure, it has a shanked noseband action but not long shanks ) which again I'm not used to- all these leverage bits are fine, but they operate mostly in one plane and I'm used to working off a snaffle where I can open the rein up wide if I need to get the horse doubled, so riding these guys I feel a bit like someone has stolen my handbrake. More stuff to get used to, no question. We only did a very little bit, as it was almost completely dark by this point, but it was a real pleasure and an honour to ride on Charlie's own horse. We shall certainly be visiting again (they're only one village over from where our ponies live) and I'm sure I'll spend a bit more time with Donk, which I'll enjoy and hopefully once he gets used to the idea he will too.