My usual hacking with Scottie usually consists of Scottie dragging his feet on the way out, marching on the way home and spending the majority of the hack up someones tail so that he doesn’t have to think for himself and can just follow the other horses blindly. However, yesterday was a rather different experience!
We went out with fellow ex racehorses Barry and Solomon and as soon as I was on, Scottie was ready to go. We set off and Scottie marched along in the front quite happily. This was a bit odd, but we started off heading a way he knows well, so maybe he was hoping to get back quickly!
After a little while we turned off to do a new hack for us. Apart from Scottie having a few silly seconds to let me know that he thought this new place was a perfect spot for a canter, we settled back down and carried on marching ahead. Now this new hack had a few scary bits to it and we soon found ourselves heading towards a busy farm with lots of heavy, moving farm machinery.
Scottie was completely unfazed by all of this ‘scary’ stuff. Although he did give the cows and a suspicious looking muck heap a bit of a wide birth! A little bit further on we had to walk across a fairly narrow, wooden foot bridge. Scottie hesitated and stopped at this and I let Barry take the lead, knowing that Scottie would follow without a second thought. A little later on the hack we had another scary moment where Barry needed to lead, but again Scottie followed without question. On both of these occasions I probably could have got Scottie to go first. But we were having such a forward, ‘brave’, hack for a change that I didn’t think it would be worth it. But next time we do this hack (alone or in company) we will see if Scottie can do those things for himself!
So although we had a few wimpy movements, we had a really good hack yesterday with Scottie being happy and brave and the front and dealing with almost everything himself. Although he might have just been in a rush to get back and have a wee as it was the first thing he did once his saddle was off!
Last Updated on 14/01/2022
