Repeat until bored.

RadaR went out for a long hack today. It wasn't supposed to be a long hack, but he made it one - more later. It was like riding both of them in one hack. Sometimes nicely there under me, but more often locking his back and shrinking back under my seat. On a horse that size and of that power, it's a pretty uncomfortable place to sit! So it was - push out push out push out, and half halt half halt half halt to stop him from trotting off in response. What a pain these young horses can be, quite literally when talking about your backside :-)

Still, there were times when it was really lovely, and the weather was just - well - fantastic. No wind, sunshine, absolutely totally brilliant. I felt like I was riding along in a picture, and in fact I was - our house is in a huge picture in Cheshire Life magazine this month, page 21. A friend told me she'd seen it so we had to buy a copy of course. It looks a million dollars. (Well it should, it's worth even more than that, but you should have seen the place when we bought it semi-derelict. It's been a lot of work and worth every minute of it.)

Back to the long hack. We went up "The Corkscrew", the bed of a stream so called because it corkscrews its way up an extremely steep slope. He piled his way up it very nimbly, every bit Radar. And then radaR got to the top, turned for home and when asked to trot up a hill on the road stuck his nose in the air and would have bolted home if he hadn't had his hunting pelham on. We turned, went back to the beginning point, and did it again. And again. And again. And twenty two more times until he trotted nicely up the hill on the twenty third attempt. The neighbours had come out to watch by then!

Still, he had some decent exercise!

C