Through the Quarry

As all of 'Lilian's  horses are still at hers I continue riding out with 'Mr F' on my own, either to meet others or just on our own.

On Sunday we rode over to 'Lillians' to meet up with her, 'Tom' and some riding club members. This time our route would take us through a quarry.  The start of the route took us past 'Lillian's partner's yard and the fields nearby - next to the road - are home of serval pigs. As we have been on this route quite a few times in the past, 'Mr F' is now coping well with the pigs and the smell of it.

Once we reached the quarry, 'Lillian' decided to try a different route, which was supposedly a bridle path. Well, I don't think anyone in their right mind would have gone down that path as it was unkept, very mudy and at places rather tricky to deal with for our horses. I decided it to be only fair to get off to make it easier for 'Mr F' to navigate this rather tricky path - which was difficult even for me.

It was very stoney and steep downhill and I began to worry about 'Mr F's balance but he coped perfectly. Although he was a little slow because he took special care to think about where to place his legs and body. As an ex-racehorse, this isn't something he was used to doin back in his days.

All the walking has helped to improve 'Mr F's leg muscles and his balance is much much better nowadays. It was very interesting to see his facial expressions while he was trying to figure out what to do with his legs.

I noticed that he was following me and would choose the same route and I had to think carefully and choose a route that he could follow. Somehow, all sense of self-preservation seems to dissapear when he is in my company.

At last the path came to an end and we were back on a 'plain' foot/bridlepath.


We arrived at a country pub where we met 'Lady Jane' and her friend (both on horseback) so we stopped there for a while before moving on to the next pub. On the way home, 'Mr F' and I separated early from the rest as they had a different route home to ours.

The point of separatin was near 'Tom's yard, which meant that 'I' and 'Mr F' needed to pass the pigs, the farm and all the gamebirds on our own. He didn't care much about the pigs but he did get a little worried about the tractor. But what he really couldn't cope with was the shrieking sound of some of the gamebirds who were being fed just behind the wall. 'Mr F' couldn't see them and he just couldn't make sense of it all. As there was a bit of traffic on this lane I got off 'Mr F' to lead him past the birds but making sure to stop long enough until he accepted the noise.

I think sometimes it is just better to get off rather than being forceful. It was easier for me to give him time to observe what upset him while being on the ground. This way we didn't stop the traffic and had all the time we needed for 'Mr F' to get used to the birds.  He had been a star on the entire ride and I didn't want it to end with a unpleasant memory for 'Mr F'.