Rodney's field pal has been sent to boarding school so catching is fine and he even seemed quite pleased to come in and do something different to munching/flirting over the fence with the mares.
We stayed in the arena as Nancy was with us and just did a few transitions, a bit of walk, trot, canter etc. I wouldn't call it schooling, as there's nothing I can teach Rodney, but the sun shone and he was very obliging. We swapped ponies, Emma on to Rod and me on Tia and carried on.
I really liked seeing someone else on Rodney, I forget how beautiful he is in that rhythmic trot and his rocking horse transitions into canter.
Near the end we did a walk/trot/lead race which was funny and then we cooled them off. Saturday morning was overcast and a little rainy and my engine light came on while I was driving to the farm. Fortunately a garage was open and took pity on me and even gave me a coffee before I went on my way. Before long we were trotting up the stubble fields with the tractor ploughing in the distance - a very English scene.
It was a great ride. The ponies were itching for a gallop and we were too - there's a brilliant hill we can use that's tremendous for that sort of thing - it goes on for ever and we always gallop there so the ponies know it and we know it and everyone's keen to let rip. In between canters we had a good laugh and made half-hearted attempts to stop the ponies dragging us along when they fancied going faster.
On the way home we passed a bale on fire - they were pretty curious, maybe a bit worried, but no drama. They are two pretty sensible beans when you get down to it. I really enjoyed our hack and I hope Rodney did too. He got lots of praise and a treat or two when we got back and hopefully next weekend we can do a bit of the same.
I'm definitely not an ambitious rider at the moment - the only aim is to ride a little and enjoy it and that's fine with me. Hopefully Rodney agrees.
Happy horsing everyone x
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