Riding

So this week has not been the write off I thought it would be. With steely determination I got on Nickel for the first time in 3 months on Tuesday. Conditions were not ideal, I was on my own and had to do a route where I went up the road and turned round to come back but that what snow does for you! Anyway he was a total babe to take up the road, I even took photos as I rode along. Turning for home he turned into a complete lunatic. Jigjogging, cantering sideways bucking, it was so much fun, especially when we met a lorry and my usually bombproof horse turned into a lunatic. Anyway I got home in one piece sweating like a pig!

Thursday was round two but this time I was prepared so I got a sensible friend to come along and we managed a roundish route. Nickel was fab. We had a slight dodgy moment when negotiating a school bus, normally fine but the air brakes went off just as I was passing and we nearly slipped into the massive ditch on our side. However, all in all, a good ride. It took an hour which was longer than I wanted but for the sake of a sensible ride, 1 hours of normal walking is better than 30-40 minutes of hell!

I need to get the leg injury out of my mind, I did have to trot him on the road, as I thought it was better than crab cantering and he felt amazing and sound. So the plan until the snow goes is to try to get out every other day with a friend and handwalk with spells in the pen inbetween.