I had another of the social rides I organize yesterday. My day got better as it progressed, first thing I gave Jess her soaked meadow hay, and sneaked Dan a handful of the forbidden fruit hay with rye grass in it, Jess came in trying to stomp him, kicking and squealing, then when I shoo'd her out she started with me and when she realized it wasn't working she had a full on bronc-ing temper tantrum right there in front of me 
Jess and I hack to the meeting point and we were running a bit late but luckily there a good bit of the way where the sandy track is always pretty loose, so I figured we'd canter that to make up some time, so one handed, on a loose rein, nice and relaxed off we set until about half way along when suddenly there was a pocket of very deep sand and Jess very nearly ended upon her face It took her a couple of strides to save us, but she did, for a second after I thought she might be lame, but it was more the shock of it I think.
Then we waited for our friends
And headed out through the forest
To the one and only crop field near us, that had handily been baled so we could have a canter, the going was perfect as the tractors had loosened the top few inches of sand. Rusty the Clydie apparently went the fastest he's ever been, I think he's just turned 6
Then back through the forest, popping out on a nature trail that I am pretty sure we weren't meant to be on
And down for a dunk in the river, what you can't see is that behind us there were dozens upon dozens of families with their dogs, paddle boards, inflatable dinghy's etc. also enjoying the river, so we didn't stop long! This is the handsome Rusty.
Then we toddled back to the pub for a very nice cold pint
The actual social ride was about 90 minutes, plus the 30 minutes we do each way to get there and back, we were out for just under 4 hours in all, thankfully it wasn't so desperately hot
Jess and I hack to the meeting point and we were running a bit late but luckily there a good bit of the way where the sandy track is always pretty loose, so I figured we'd canter that to make up some time, so one handed, on a loose rein, nice and relaxed off we set until about half way along when suddenly there was a pocket of very deep sand and Jess very nearly ended upon her face
It took her a couple of strides to save us, but she did, for a second after I thought she might be lame, but it was more the shock of it I think.Then we waited for our friends
And headed out through the forest
To the one and only crop field near us, that had handily been baled so we could have a canter, the going was perfect as the tractors had loosened the top few inches of sand. Rusty the Clydie apparently went the fastest he's ever been, I think he's just turned 6
Then back through the forest, popping out on a nature trail that I am pretty sure we weren't meant to be on
And down for a dunk in the river, what you can't see is that behind us there were dozens upon dozens of families with their dogs, paddle boards, inflatable dinghy's etc. also enjoying the river, so we didn't stop long! This is the handsome Rusty.
Then we toddled back to the pub for a very nice cold pint
The actual social ride was about 90 minutes, plus the 30 minutes we do each way to get there and back, we were out for just under 4 hours in all, thankfully it wasn't so desperately hot
