Up, Up and Away

My Sunday hacks with Wolfie are turning into a weekly event.  I'm trying to make the most of the weather and the daylight before winter.  Today we rode up the hills which are behind the stables. 

We were headed for the trees at the skyline

It's pretty much uphill all the way and some parts are quite steep.  There are some good tracks though and the ground was good today.

We passed this old ruin of a house.  It would be nice and peaceful living all the way up here!

We headed passed the ruin and had a good canter along a nice long, pretty flat track.  The views were stunning.

The Campsies

Wolfie admiring the view (and the grass!)

You can just see in the photograph above, a track through the bracken.  That's where we were headed.

The hill

The track doesn't look like much, but it is really, really steep.  At the top part it almost looks vertical.  You would have to gallop up it.  It's one of those ones where the horses legs are moving but they aren't actually getting anywhere.  I didn't attempt it today.  Wolfie seemed up for it, but he'd hacked uphill for over an hour to get there.  I don't feel he's quite strong or fit enough yet to attempt it and I definitely don't want to get stuck half way up it.  We will do it some day as there's a whole other world over the top of that hill.

Blog wouldn't be complete without a picture of Wolfie's very expressive ears.

Wolfie bounced all the way back downhill and home.  He kept taking off into canter randomly for no reason.  He's definitely getting fitter and his recovery times are improving, but that was hardwork for him today.  Once we got home I fed him and turned him out.  I spotted him half an hour later lying flat out in the field.  He must have been tired.  He's such a good horse.

Buttons sleeping in the field (before he was ridden!)

Just woke up

I'm coming

Zoe came up to ride today and we went out for a walk to pick some rose hips for the horses. Buttons was very good, but he was feeling the heat, it was very warm and he's got a very thick coat already.  Just as we were almost home, he stopped dead in his tracks, I turned around to see him lie down.  He went down and he just kind of looked at me, I growled at him and he got back up on his feet.  He obviously was feeling itchy and sweaty under his numnah and thought he would just go for a roll, forgetting he had a rider on board.  He was wearing a thick wooly numnah and when I took the saddle off he was very sweaty underneath.  That's such a pony thing to do.  Zoe was very good and didn't panic although she did say that she thought the two of them were going to roll down the hill!