Fun and fine weather

 We have been having fun with the horses over the last few days.  On Thursday we called Dee in from the 12 acre field.  She probably started ambling over as usual, but then the whole herd decided to follow her, so she put on a turn of speed.  The picture shows them heading round the corner at full pelt – Dee at the front closely followed by the rest of the herd (Red is in the red rug on the right).  We climbed the ridge and let them head past us – we didn't fancy getting in their way!  Dee stopped as soon as she reached us and the rest of the herd broke like a wave around her and settled down.

 

She's looking good – a good weight and with a nice shiny coat.  There are a few places where her rug has rubbed a little – but nothing serious.

 

Today we called her and there she was waiting at the gate for us when we got to the bottom of the field.

 

She walked up on her own without a headcollar.  'ö-Dzin kept trying to jog ahead to get photographs and she thought this was a great game and started trotting by him every time he tried to get in front.

 

Today was the day to try out the new saddle.  We've bought a Thorowgood Maxam.  It came with a wide gullet, but we have changed this to a medium for Dee.  Nicky checked it for me and said it looked a good fit on her.  The Thorowgood website said to try the saddle at all paces to check that it didn't move or lift up at the back.  So we did that.  It gives her good wither clearance and fits really well.  I decided to pop Dee over this little jump a few times as a final check.  Dee so loves to jump and she really enjoyed this.  The arena is waterlogged so there wasn't much room to get a good distance for a run up on the jump, so this one was a bit of a bunny hop.

 

On our way out we gave Red a few treats.  He'd been out on a hack for the school.  He decided it was too slow being given a treat one at a time, and decided to snaffle the rest straight out of the tub!  Today the weather has been bright and sunny – and even quite warm.  If it continues like this we may actually ride them both out next weekend.