Before things were bad, they were good...

[glenatron]

Well today has been a disaster, but the weekend was pretty cool.

We went out and stayed a hotel for our anniversary night, had nice food and quite a bit of wine and it was pretty cool. On Saturday we went out to watch some eventing at Gatcombe...

The cross-country was on the Novice course ( is that your level, buymeaclue? ) which meant we could be scared by the size of some of the jumps on the two-star course and also watch real people riding around some pretty impressive scenery:

Cantering through the woods.


Jumping out of the wooded part.


The splashing jump!


I'd say the look on these two faces are a lot of why eventing appeals to people.

Also sleepsy_mouse had a moment while trying on shirts in one of the stalls and turned around to find the stallholder deep in conversation with Princess Anne.


On Sunday sleepsy_mouse went for a gentle ride on Small ( who is still very flat and far from being himself ) and had a lesson on Donk with our friend Liz, which was really interesting. Made it very clear how much Donk would gain from the clinic next weekend as well.

Then I brought Zorro in and we went out for a bit of a hack, which turned into a fairly long ride. In the end we were out for about three and a half hours, which was longer than I planned. Working out where we went afterwards I think we did a circuit that came in at about seven and a half miles. Certainly our longest solo hack, by a long way. Those of you who do endurance ( those of you who endure? ) may have worked out our average speed already from those numbers but suffice it to say it's not terribly high. This is largely because although he's capable of something of a saunter, Zorro's default pace is an amble and he'll happily descend through a plod towards absolute stasis if I am not constantly on his case.

He's also, as sleepsy_mouse accurately describes it, something of a tourist. He likes to look around and enjoy the scenery. Or to freeze and stare intently into the distance in order to warn me of impending something. Usually impending cyclists and/or walkers. We have to freeze for twice as long when it is horses passing by but at least now we don't have a fight over whether or not he should follow them.

We actually passed my parents' house so we called by, terrorised the puppy and demanded windfall apples from their garden. This was a double win as we also got invited to their house for dinner.

On the way back up the lane the sun finally broke through the low, hazy cloud that had obscured it throughout the afternoon and cast a thin red glow onto us on the lane so I took some pictures that came out somewhat abstract and arty...


Sunset hedgerow abstract I


Forest mosaic.


Sunset hedgerow abstract II

Although I do say so myself, those do make for some pretty awesome desktop backdrops, so I left them big when I uploaded them to Flickr...

Comments

[wldhrsjen3.livejournal.com]

I love those photos! All of them!

And yay for such a long hack. I figure speed is secondary... getting down a trail safely is a huge accomplishment. ^_^ (Brisa is pretty slow, too, but we're working on stretching out her walk and getting a little more oomph. :P)

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Speed is absolutely secondary, I'm so proud of my cob and the changes he's made over the last six months or so, and he actually can go quicker it's just that if I don't push him on every few strides he typically won't. I would have asked for us to do more trotting and cantering but once I realised we were going a fairly long way I figured it would be a bit mean to ask him to hurry as well, although he is actually fairly fit now.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Novice is indeed my level, but I'm not sure our Novice and your Novice are the same thing.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I got our friend who does a lot of eventing to explain the different levels to me and honestly there are so many of them that I have no idea what they all mean.

I think we're more or less in line with the FEI, which means british riders get baffled by 37.5 inch jumps because that height makes sense in centimetres...

[penella22.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a big novice fence out of the woods.

How awesome you for you & Zorro that you did such a long hack! Wow! I would be totally pumped if Sage and I were out that long.

I would have totally thought you had photoshopped those, but I guess it just goes to show people could have fun well before Ps existed simply by taking photos while in motion...

Yay for Small having a gentle ride! I hope that is a good sign...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

It looks big and it's hella-solid, but it's quite a simple jump I guess. The more advanced ones tended to be bigger and to feature several jumps in very short succession...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Also, yes it was a really good long hack, even if 2mph is considerably slower than my usual walking speed. I'm very proud of that charming cob.

[baddynono.livejournal.com]

Wow, those are amazing photos.

Good luck with sorting out your lorry, my fingers are crossed you can get it patched and plated!