Trotting on

John and I rode out this morning with another couple of girls from the livery yard and their horses, we were out for around an hour-and-a-half, the longest hack we have done so far. He was tired when we got back to the yard because we did a lot of trotting, more than we have done for ages.

Again, he was brill in all ways. We went a new route and he handled it really well, even though for some reason there were lots of cars around (on a Sunday morning can you believe, why weren’t people still in bed?) We met several dogs, joggers and cyclists – the only one he seemed to be wary of was a very large poodle with a quiff.

I lost a stirrup manoeuvring our way through apple boxes stacked up either side of the path at one point – he did take a dislike to them – but he went through at a jog so didn’t disgrace himself by taking off with me, and I managed to hook my foot back into the stirrup pretty quickly.

Another great step forward for us I think.