It just gets better and better

It is the most beautiful day on my hilltop today. Clear blue skies, no wind to speak of, views for 50 miles.

And the boys just get better and better. I've had a lovely relaxed hack on Ace, the best he has ever been. His spookiness has changed character altogether and is no longer threatening. He was promoted out of draw reins to school last week when the lights did their magic, and now he is promoted out of them on hacks too.

Woody has also been promoted out of the draw reins as he begins to understand the relationship between his mouth and my hands.  I was using them because WPO told me she hacked him in a Market Harborough.

He did a longer hack today and although his trot is initially terribly stilted he is perfectly sound. It is, of course, possible that he is bilaterally lame in both fronts, but since he can turn sharp bends on the road perfectly soundly, I doubt it. Many "normal" horses struggle to turn on a sixpence on the road.

The reason that I know he is sound on a tight circle on the road is that he threw quite a strop approaching the gate about being asked to walk slowly with his head down and his back free. So we spent a good 20 minutes passing and repassing the gate, turning in 10ft of roadway each pass, until he stopped trying to tell me what he would and would not do, and dropped into a nice quiet walk. Magically, the gate then opened, and in we went. Putting that together with the longer hack, he's done far more work than ever before today.

In case anyone is worried about how fast I am increasing the work for a horse that has not been ridden for a year (it is still less than 5 weeks after all), I am judging by his own reaction to the work. The first week a horse is here, running around on a 1 in 5 slope trying to find their place in the herd, they are normally absolutely shattered and you can see it. Woody never was, he coped with it fine. So when we started to ride out, he was already much fitter than I had expected. He's been hacking 1 in 5 hills regularly from the start, because I have no option, it's right outside the gate!! He is showing no signs of any problems with that work, tendon wise or fitness wise. Quite the reverse, he just gets stronger every day.So I am pretty relaxed about increasing his work, keeping an eye meanwhile on his tendons and areas where he may have problems being unused to carrying a saddle and a rider.

In another couple of weeks, if we have no setbacks, I plan to take him to the Farm Ride and pootle round it popping some of the tiny fences. Won't that be a milestone :-) ?

C