Thank you @Frances144 , as long as the pubs and cafes are still open I'll treat you to lunch as a thank you. I still look back at those photos, you managed to get them being themselves rather than staged shots and that meant a lot at the time and even more now.
New boy on the block
- Thread starter carthorse
- Start date
In the first picture his head looks really big. I thought it was going to be a shire. Camera shots can can be deceptive. Second shot his head looks so much smaller.
Billy is 14.3.
Billy is 14.3.
Thats exactly what i would do to. There probably some roads you were hacking previous anyway, so you will be relaxed, and if your hacking with other people it should keep things chilled and as you say turn out straight after exercise should really help settle him.
That's exactly what I was thinking @chunky monkey and I think he'll be a horse who'll be far more settled in a work routine too.
Hacking him home, what a dream! Wonderful.@Jane&Ziggy Luka's wider than he looks, I've just had to have my saddle set to XW and if I was so inclined - which I'm not - I think I could get between his front legs! I prefer not to have too big when I'm hacking on bridleways, it saves so much ducking under branches. I nearly got caught out dismounting today though, he rides bigger than he is and I wasn't expecting the ground to be so close
I'll hack him the 3 or 4 miles to my yard on Friday or Saturday, depending on when the couple of friends who've volunteered to hack with me can do. It hardly seems worth hiring a box to travel him that far and he'll probably be more settled turning out if he's done a bit of work too.
Another nice hack today, I think he's going to turn into a nice hack. He starts out a bit tense but soon settles. Another ride neither of us knew, and with it being a sunny Bank Holiday it felt like the world and his wife were out gardening, hedge cutting, mowing the lawn or walking the dog, but he kept going even when there wasn't much room to avoid the monsters. That's good enough for me!
I think he will be great fun. I do think he wouldn't be a horse that would suit anyone because he does need quiet confidence, but he relaxed so much quicker today and he never even tried anything untoward. Only one call today too, and that was when he saw some ridden horses going along the road in front of him - I think once he's home and know the rides and me he'll be a very polite hacking horse.
He's lost a bit of weight - 30kg since I first weigh taped him - and I think he looks better for it. The slightly scary crest on his neck has gone down a lot too 
When I got him a month ago he was barely 14.3, but he came up quite bum high a couple of weeks ago and is now starting to level up a bit so I suspect he may make the 15hh he was sold as. He rides quite big though and has a very high head carriage - my saddler wondered if he was part Friesian which should give you an idea - so he also looks bigger than he is.
I'm rapidly heading that way. I fell for him the first time I saw him and he'll be worth the work that needs doing.
Thank you. He's a proper cob, and once he's got some muscle on him he'll be a real powerhouse. It's a shame he's not a bit bigger, and that I won't hog, because it would be interesting to see if he'd show as a cob - he'd look like a pony next to the real show cobs though, and may have too much knee action though he's actually very comfortable to ride. I can never understand how so many show cobs get a 15.1 LHC.
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