Went round twice!

We arrived at the farm ride to be told that they had harrowed it but that it was still very frozen and were asked to wait an hour. That was such a pain! We were forced to sit in a nice warm cafe eating bacon and egg butties and drinking coffee.

Radar was what Radar is, dead keen to get going and very reluctant to slow down. I continue in my wonder at how he just loves to move. He simply could not care less that the ground was frozen in places and insisted on cantering for the first 20 minutes until I made him stop. The winter ride is about 5 miles but we did most of it twice by going back around two major loops. There were quite a few jumps that the sun had got to, or which were inside woods and had never frozen, so we did all those. His technique has improved markedly over timber fences. He now uses himself properly instead of flinging himself over them. He's also a lot better balanced on the corners than he used to be. There are lots of sharp bends on the course and it is interesting to do the same track  again and compare him with last time.  It's much more comfortable for me to ride him.

I was testing the new plastic bridle, and it's a good job that I did. The martingale rings kept jumping the rein stops and hooking themselves onto the bit. That would be very dangerous if it happened just before trying to jump a big hedge, because it would stop him extending his head to keep his balance on landing and it could well bring him down. As it happens I had bought 4 stops at the on-site saddlery and had one in front of the ring and one to stop it sliding back onto the rein rubbers. I moved both stops so that they were between the bit and the ring, and that stopped the ring going over.

I was also testing a new neoprene pocket that I sewed to my saddle cloth to hold my hip flask. I actually forgot it, since I don't normally drink port out on a hack :-) but it was still in the pocket when I got back, so I think it will work. I used to use tiny velcro bicycle frame bags, but they fell apart recently :-(

The weather was just superb. It was cold, but no wind, with a bright blue sky. I didn't even wear a coat and it was glorious riding along in the Cheshire countryside without a car in sight. Lucky me!

C