I was a bit too busy for ears shots... Next time, maybe.
Well I had to bite the bullet some time. We have done plenty of off-road hacking round the farm. And we have been offsite in the trailer. But to hack out without the trailer we have to do road-work. And today was the day. I had 2 other horses with me who are older. She was not at all spooky but was VERY excited. Not sure why, really as she has been calmer on wide grassy tracks than she was on the roads. Maybe a combination of being somewhere new coupled with all the sights and sounds on residential streets: cars, strimmers, workmen on roofs, school-kids the playground etc etc. I could control her pace - she stayed behind the others - but not her gait. So we often had jogging when we should have had walking and cantering when we should have had trotting! We did lots of long uphill trots and I discovered she is VERY fit - I was hoping she would lose some of her fizz after a few minutes of strong uphill trotting but not a bit of it!. On the final uphill trot near home, she got a bit stronger and we ended up cantering sideways up the road which set the other horses off. Oh dear. We all tried to walk the rest of the way but straight after this hill we were back on the 'gallopy field' leading to the farm and the first horse took off. I stayed in control of Cally (just) but we had mini rears and jumps forward in her enthusiasm to follow. I did my singing trick (to the rhythm of a 4 beat) and slowly she dropped back into a calm walk in time with my warbling! And then we walked home on a long rein and she was fine. 90% of the time she was fab. The other 10% got a little hairy at times, but for her first trip out, I think she did quite well. Can only get better from here. She clearly loved every minute - ears pricked, striding out - so that was good.
Well I had to bite the bullet some time. We have done plenty of off-road hacking round the farm. And we have been offsite in the trailer. But to hack out without the trailer we have to do road-work. And today was the day. I had 2 other horses with me who are older. She was not at all spooky but was VERY excited. Not sure why, really as she has been calmer on wide grassy tracks than she was on the roads. Maybe a combination of being somewhere new coupled with all the sights and sounds on residential streets: cars, strimmers, workmen on roofs, school-kids the playground etc etc. I could control her pace - she stayed behind the others - but not her gait. So we often had jogging when we should have had walking and cantering when we should have had trotting! We did lots of long uphill trots and I discovered she is VERY fit - I was hoping she would lose some of her fizz after a few minutes of strong uphill trotting but not a bit of it!. On the final uphill trot near home, she got a bit stronger and we ended up cantering sideways up the road which set the other horses off. Oh dear. We all tried to walk the rest of the way but straight after this hill we were back on the 'gallopy field' leading to the farm and the first horse took off. I stayed in control of Cally (just) but we had mini rears and jumps forward in her enthusiasm to follow. I did my singing trick (to the rhythm of a 4 beat) and slowly she dropped back into a calm walk in time with my warbling! And then we walked home on a long rein and she was fine. 90% of the time she was fab. The other 10% got a little hairy at times, but for her first trip out, I think she did quite well. Can only get better from here. She clearly loved every minute - ears pricked, striding out - so that was good.
