Hacking

Back in the swing of things

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After a few days off and a few more days lunging it was time to get back in the saddle.  The lunging had gone pretty well – Galahad was starting to track up nicely and even Cookster was going forward for once.

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It was good to be riding again and both ponies were very well behaved.  We had a lovely, gentle hack just pootling around the lanes – it was wonderful.  More importantly,  Galahad felt much freer in his stride and seemed to be working better.

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On our way home we rode through a field which has sprouted clover flowers everywhere.   It was beautiful!

Double Trouble

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While the ponies were away I did a bit of riding and leading with them.

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This isn’t something I do often.  For one thing, the hills at home are pretty steep and I do worry that the ponies will wind each other up, especially if we meet any traffic.  However, I have less time at my disposal when the ponies are away and I knew that other people were riding and leading them with no issue at all.

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I needn’t have worried either.  The only problem I had was that when we pulled over for cars it was very difficult to stop Cookster (being led) eating and that seemed like a minor problem.  We even managed to ride past a huge car transporter  (not something we usually see!)  barely rushing at all.  I actually very much enjoyed my time with them both.

Not so fit

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It turns out that I am not quite so recovered as I thought I was.

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I was so thrilled to be riding again that I went a bit mad.  My sister and I went for a lovely hack on Monday, then I schooled both ponies after work on Tuesday.  I thought I was doing fine but on Wednesday I was utterly exhausted and riding just did not seem like a good idea.

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The trouble is that for the last three weeks I have spent almost every moment not at work asleep.  Although I am much better I just do not appear to be ready to ride as much as normal.  Or if I did I would in all likelihood slow down my recovery even more.  I  just have to accept that I need to ration my riding time.

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It is hard though.  The ponies went away to give me a chance to recover but now I have done that to some extent I want to make the most of the facilities whilst they are there.  That’s just common sense.  I suppose though that taking days off to recover now will mean I get to ride more much sooner.  That’s what I need to think about!

Relaxing Week

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20170422_192751After our busy weekend  we have had a very relaxing week.  The ponies each had a couple of days off and we have had some lovely, calming hacks.

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Galahad did have one mini schooling session  – we were trying out a new bit for cross country and I wanted to ride with it in the small field first before we used it in earnest.  Apart from that it has been a nice quiet week.

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The weather has been mixed.  One day we had hail, sleet and snow (sometimes all at once), others had pouring rain and still others had glorious sunshine.  It has been a great week though and I have enjoyed the hacking very much indeed.  I think the ponies did too!

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Shepherd Pony

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We had a very exciting ride yesterday  – we were halfway up the hill when a lamb appeared in front of us.  Then there was another one and soon the ewe materialised as well.

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We obviously wanted to get them off the road and back into the field.  Unfortunately,  they took one look and ran away from us – and the gate.  I left  my sister and the ponies guarding the gate and set off in pursuit,  wondering how I was going to pass the sheep to turn them back.

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Luckily they darted off to the side and it looked like they had found the spot where they escaped.  They popped back over the bank and into the field.  It may have been the wrong field but at least they were safe and off the road.  It was a very satisfying job done.

Galloping Galahad

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Last week I mentioned that that I was hoping to have some good hacks this week.  I was not disappointed!  We have had a glorious  week of sunshine and some wonderful rides.  We also managed to get into my neighbour’s fields for a canter for the first time this year which was excellent!

The first time we just stuck to a fairly steady circuit of the smaller field.  Both ponies were very well behaved and quite sedate really.

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A couple of days later we rode up again and also went into the larger field.  We had a lovely canter up one side and then walked past the pheasant farm which seems to have grown.  We stopped to have a better look – until Galahad decided it was far too scary and took off across the field.  He even threw in a few bucks for good measure which is something he hasn’t done for a long time.  I did manage to pull him up and we did walk down the hill but we did have to have to have a bit of an argument first.

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 Once we did get down the hill we had a lovely canter back up again and we did then have another nice canter back in the first field.  We even walked sensibly away from Cookster so my sister could take the photograph.

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Galahad does seem to have got into a bit of a habit of taking off sometimes when we go out for a canter.  I think it is more joie de vivre than anything else but it is still not a good thing.  It is definitely something we need to work on.

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We still had a lovely few days though and are so much enjoying ourselves.

Not Working Too Hard

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I have written several times about the relaxing rides I have had on Cookster but I don’t think I have ever done the same for Galahad.  In fact, sometimes I find that I am unconsciously nagging him when we are hacking.

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I don’t know if it is because I can’t school at the moment (although I think the field is very nearly dry enough) and I am trying to make up for that.  Obviously it is good to school out hacking but I don’t want to be nagging all the time.  Besides, it is such a wonderful feeling to be more relaxed when hacking.

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This week though, I was riding Galahad and suddenly realised that we were walking where normally we would be trotting.  Not only that, I was completely calm and relaxed.  We have now had a couple of hacks like it and they have been wonderfully peaceful.  It has been so great to finally get to ride Galahad in this way.

Back to Square One

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Cookster always used to be incredibly nappy when I rode him out alone.  I have been working hard on sorting that and he has come a long way – it has been while since he has tried to turn for home and if I have needed to mount whilst out on a hack he has recently been very good about standing still.  All our arguments about that seemed a thing of the past.

After the incident with the alpacas last week though, he has regressed.  If he thinks we are going anywhere near their field he will try to go home instead.   Mounting whilst out has become problematical again as well.  I feel like I have undone months of hard work just by stopping to take a picture.  We will get back to where we were but it is disheartening.

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On the bright side, Galahad is now once again the easier ride of the two and we have had some lovely hacks this week.  In between the showers of pouring rain the weather has been rather nice and refreshing.

The ponies were wormed this week and so are now in a new field with more grass than they had.  It is very exciting!

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Intimidating Alpacas

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I mentioned on Sunday that I took all my photographs when riding Cookster because he was being far more sensible. Unfortunately,  that was only true up to a point.

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I was quite happily taking pictures of the alpacas when one came up very close to the fence.  That was rather nice and we stood there looking at it.  I could feel Cookster trembling a bit but didn’t think anything of it – after all, we have seen them many times before.

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Cookster suddenly whipped round and charged off back towards home.  At that point I was only wearing one glove and I was holding my phone so I didn’t have a great grip on the reins and our braking was not doing too well.  To make it worse, Cookster’s braking can be iffy at the best of times and hauling on the reins is not the way to stop him.

Luckily though we did manage to stop before we ran down the hill to the main road.  It is steeper than it looks in the photograph!

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I led him back past the alpacas and we carried on our way.  He was absolutely fine after that but I knew we would have to go back past them.  Cookster knew it too and was stopping dead a hundred yards before the alpacas’ field.  I could get him moving again but I ended up leading him past.  I didn’t really fancy charging down the hill to the main road.

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We have definitely got something to work on now!

A Blustery Ride

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Today’s hack was definitely interesting.   It has been very blustery here for the past few days and Galahad was suitably spooky.

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Disclaimer: All of the ears in this post actually belong to Cookster. I wasn’t getting my camera out on a spooking pony!

First he was determined to walk over to the far corner of the field instead of straight to the gate.  Cookster frequently does this but it is new for Galahad.  I have no idea what is so exciting over there!  We had a bit of an argument but I did manage to persuade him to go the right way.

Next we were just approaching the gate in the lane when a bird rustled in the hedge. Normally that barely registers with him any more but today it was terrifying and we had to canter back up the lane again.   I got him back to the gate but he would not go past it.  He was quite happy to stand still next to it but walking past was apparently very dangerous.   In the end I had to lead him through the gate.

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After that our ride went pretty well.  He was having a good look at everything but didn’t properly spook again.  He was very determined to eat the grass but then the verges are a lot lusher than the fields at the moment – nobody is eating them!

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We also renewed our acquaintance with the alpacas who have appeared in the field again.  They haven’t been around for a while so it was nice to see them.