Yesterday Scottie reminded me why I love ex racehorses and why I went looking for one before I found him 2 years ago. I decided it was a lovely day to go for a hack. So I got him in, gave him a quick brush and tacked up. I’m not going to lie, Scottie wasn’t too keen on doing anything today, he obviously thought it was too warm to go do some work!
But I got on and we set off by ourselves down all the tracks we have for hacking on our door step. Not long after setting off Scottie was called a “lovely looking horse” by a man walking his dog, which always puts a smile on my face! A little way up the track they have dumped loads of horrible bricks, so we climbed up a bank and walked along the edge of the ploughed field for a little while. I thought Scottie would protest about this a little, as it was a bit hard going, but no, he marched on happily until we got back onto the track.
We didn’t look at the big black bales Scottie tries to avoid and in no time we were on the big grassy field along the side of the main road (There is a fence between the field and the road!) After marching down the grassy hill, I thought it was time to have a nice lollup of a canter up the rest of the field. Scottie read my mind and popped into a very steady canter instantly before asking if we could go faster. I gave my reins and we were thundering off!
It was fantastic. We were across the field in no time. Scottie has always taken a long time to slow down, so as we got towards the end of the field, I started to get ready to do a circle, rather than galloping through the tiny gap onto the bridle way! But as soon as I asked him to turn he came back to a very steady canter and then trot. We had a few jig joggy strides before we settled back down to walk on a long rein the rest of the way home.
Scottie very rarely wants to go fast when it’s just us, he’s quite happy just to have a steady canter. So it was nice to have a good gallop yesterday! But then he has only had a handful of canters out and about over the past few months. So he probably had a lot to get out of his system and we might need to walk/steady canter next time we do that ride so it doesn’t become his new gallops!
But it is fantastic when this donkey of a horse actually acts like the racehorse he was!
Last Updated on 14/01/2022
