We had such a beautiful, frosty morning today.
Mornings like this make me realise just how lucky I am.
Until I don’t leave enough time to scrape the car and so am late to work!
Winter
Winter is Coming
You can definitely tell that winter is well on its way. For one thing, Galahad now frequently comes in from the field covered with mud and I have swapped from using a body brush to a dandy brush.
The fields are holding up pretty well so far but there is still enough mud to cover a pony!
Another sign is that Cookster is now wearing these stirrups.
My sister likes to ride in her wellies when the ground is muddy and these make it that bit safer to do so.
I on the other hand am still sticking faithfully to my jodhpur boots.
They might be falling apart and they definitely need replacing but until it gets cold or very wet I will be wearing them!
Chilly Riding
It is pretty cold here at the moment but there are signs that spring is on the way.
The snowdrops have been out for a couple of weeks but now we are starting to see some primroses and even some brave daffodils.
Galahad and I had a lovely hack today. It was very cold but a beautiful day and I took Galahad into my neighbour’s field for the first time this year. Partly I wanted to see what sort of state the ground was in – some of it was fine, other bits were still very squelchy. I also wanted to show Galahad that we don’t always have to canter in the field. When we started riding in there he learned very quickly that it is a place where we canter and he can be inclined to take off sometimes.
We kept strictly to walk and went round the whole field. Galahad behaved much better than I expected – he did walk a lot faster once we had turned the corner back towards home but he didn’t try to take off once. I was incredibly pleased with him and I think it was definitely worth doing. I really need to remember not to canter every time we go through the field!
Winter Wonderland
It has been simply beautiful here this week with a hard frost that lasted all the way through to Friday. I had to take ice off the water buckets every morning and the piles of ice are still there now. As you can see, it has also been pretty foggy.
The mornings especially have been glorious with clear blue skies and bright sunshine. Having said that, the evenings have been just as beautiful as the clear skies mean the stars are looking wonderful.
It has been pretty nice to walk over the top of frozen mud as well – much better than sticking in the wet stuff. Not that we have too much mud yet as the weather has been so nice this autumn. No doubt it will come!
Ponies by Torchlight
You may have noticed that winter is almost upon us. It is pretty cold and the days have suddenly got a lot shorter. I am having to check the ponies in the dark most evenings now.
Obviously this was not taken quite in the dark, alough it was pretty dim. I tried taking a photograph by torchlight and funnily enough it didn’t work!
Galahad is so much better with the torch now. He used to refuse to come anywhere near it but now I can walk right up to him with the torch shining. He is quite happy for me to talk to him as well. He is getting so brave!
Gadding About With Galahad 