glenatron | Cash is a proper riding horse

This weekend I had

herecirm down to visit and it was one of the nicest weekends we have spent together. I made pie, which was delicious, Sari came along to band practice ( Stu wanted to do it at the weekend ) and didn't get too bored, we watched Scott Pilgrim which had some entertaining moments and we took Cash out for a couple of rides.

On Saturday we did a short loop with Cash in the hackamore - it's the first time he had ridden out in that and he did really well. Also the first time

herecirm ( or anyone else ) had ridden him out on the trail. I was confident he would do fine and she is a good enough rider to stay with him.

At this point he was at the top of a steep descent which Sari wasn't completely sure about and so Cash wasn't either, hence his expression here. When they stepped over the edge he took the most careful and tiny steps and looked after her beautifully.

Cash loves drinking when he's out for a ride.

Most of my other photos were a bit blurry on Saturday - and I held off on photos because we went around a field of very boisterous baby cattle and we were focussing on maintaining a calm and safe pony as they scampered and bucked alongside so we'll move on to Sunday's ride, where we went out a little further, in the snaffle this time.

Cash looks noble, or sniffs a very small tree- could go either way.

Framed against the January sky on the top of the Devil's Punchbowl.

Down another hill - Sari doesn't get to ride on many hills on account of living in East Anglia. We're working to remedy that.

Pony in hot pursuit. Cash was quite keen to try and hide in my pockets a lot of the time.

I don't know quite what was going on here ( except it was another of Cash's mid-stream drink stops ) but Cash appears to be doing a passable impression of the Luck Dragon with that facial expression.

Up the next hill...

As Cash gets more accustomed to the local trails, he starts to get an idea of when he is nearly home and suddenly his speed doubles. That will change with miles on the clock, I think.

Overall I was very pleased with Cash- he was taking a lot of reassurance from having me along on foot, but he was listening to Sari and trying hard to be the best trail horse he could figure out how to be, although he did sometimes feel more attention could be paid to his navigational recommendations. Sari is a nice rider and stayed with him very well.

On the whole it was a pretty excellent weekend and I didn't want to be saying goodbye to

herecirm at the end of it. Hopefully by the next time she comes down, I might have a job - but then I've been hoping that for a while. What feels like the most interesting interview I've had yet is lined up for Tuesday...