It’s been a little while since I’ve put up a blog post, which isn’t a great start considering how new this blog is, but I’ve got a few posts in the pipeline now so watch out for those! I thought I’d fill you all in on what I’ve been up to lately, and since I’ve recently got some fab photos of me and Adee (courtesy of my dad), I think I’ll share some as a “tack up and ride with me” photo edition sort of thing.
Unlike so many unfortunate people this year, I have been lucky enough to be able to spend my Christmas at home with my family. I have also brought Adee home for the holidays, so that we can fully relax away from work, tucked away in the beautiful, quiet countryside. He hasn’t been home for over a year, but it was pretty obvious when I unloaded him that he hasn’t forgotten it.
I have been hacking out on Adee as much as the weather will allow since he’s come home, as we are lucky to have amazing off-road hacking and woodland right on our doorstep, and we are taking a well deserved break from schooling for a few weeks. I am so pleased with how well Adee has gone on our hacks so far and how settled he has been, not even batting an eyelid at the new signs that have been put up around the forest since we were last here – he used to hate signs! It’s nice to be able to make the most of the daylight as I’m used to finishing work in the dark five days a week and therefore only having schooling/lunging as an option (very lucky to have an indoor school, granted).
We aren’t working particularly hard at the moment, just enjoying some chilled out time – admittedly since the clocks have gone back, Adee’s weight has gone up and his fitness has gone down, so I haven’t been working him awfully hard the past couple of months anyway. But when I’m riding out on my own, I do try and remember Pippa Funnell’s wise words “there’s hacking and there’s hacking” – in other words, when the likes of Pippa Funnell go out hacking, their horses are marching, not ambling.
I downloaded the app Equilab on my phone a while ago to track my rides. It essentially works like a running app but it’s designed for horse riders so differentiates between the gaits. The first time I used it, I was quite surprised how little I had worked in the faster paces, as I had thought I was doing much more than I actually was. The app also gives you your slowest and fastest pace in each gait, as well as your average, and I’m trying to challenge myself to increase Adee’s average speed in walk until we are consistently marching, as we have definitely been guilty of ambling all too often. I haven’t really had to ask for a march recently though, as Adee’s been quite forward-going since we got home, which is nice. I think he’s enjoying the change of scenery too.
This year was actually the first time I’ve been able to spend Christmas Day with Adee, as I’ve never had him at home during the festive period before. We were lucky with the weather too and went for a lovely Christmas morning ride, accompanied by my family (on foot) and our two dogs. We have two red working cocker spaniels, Cassie and Lily, who are actually mother and daughter respectively. Cassie has been on quite a few walks with Adee when he’s been home in the past and knows him well, but it was actually Lily’s first time meeting him so she was a bit worried initially and barked quite a lot. Adee was an absolute superstar and wasn’t phased by this at all. Hopefully we can do some more walks with them together so Lily can become more comfortable around him. I didn’t really get any shots of the dogs on the ride but I’m sure their faces will crop up in plenty of future blog posts. I do have some cute photos of Adee dressed up for the occasion with tinsel though!
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