Happy Hacking

The sun was shining again today so wolfie and I ventured out for another hack.  It was a good bit colder today and Wolfie was very sharp.  It also seemed to be a day for people to be hiding behind their hedges in their gardens, snapping branches and sparodically using their chain saws.  Wolfie was literally jumping out of his skin.  We rode one of the same paths we went along yesterday and it looked completely different, more leaves on the ground from the trees and they were much crunchier to walk on.  Every time a leaf blew and landed on him he leapt in the air.  We just walked, spooked, leapt about a bit around a circuit and returned home along a path which Wolfie is always very spooky on, regardless of the weather.  I don't know what it is about this path, there's really not anything to see on it which would make it seem 'scarier' than any of the other tracks we ride on, but as soon as he steps onto it, I can feel him tense.  He's bolted with me a few times on it and we've almost ended up in the river a couple of times.  Today was no exception, except he managed not to take off, just leapt off all four feet in every direction.  We were riding along that track last summer when he bolted.  It's a twisty path and you can't see what is around the corners.  I was trying to stop him when we careered around a corner and straight in front of us on the path was a Nun out for a stroll.  The Schoenstatt is just near the Glen which is a retreat and Nuns live there.  I don't know who got the bigger fright, the Nun or Wolfie as she was dressed in full habit.  She managed to jump into one side of the hedge and Wolfie leapt into the opposite side as he galloped passed at full pelt with me shouting 'I'm so sorry'.  I don't know what the penance would be for trampling a Nun but I think it would certainly be greater than the 7 years bad luck for breaking a mirror.  We stopped today on the way home so he could pick some rosehips and hacked back along the road and he was very good.