This past week we evaluated both a fit and unfit horse for our Equine Fitness class. For our unfit horse, we used Shakira - a roan school mare - and for the fit horse, our instructor Gillian's husband Grant flaunted his horse Shady - a grey Irish sporthorse. On wednesday we went to Catherine Eardley's dressage yard, and she took out a couple of horses and demonstrated her work with them. Her horse Apollo was a big red chestnut who was just learning to piaffe.
This week I rode Jimmy and Anton. Jimmy is a sweet big grey Irish draft cross. He has such a smooth gait and and is so willing to work for you, but he recently has surgery and has a pretty bad cough, so he can't do too much work. Anton is a sweetheart on the ground, but a total butthead once you get on him. He is gorgeous and misunderstood, but I think I will leave him to Mackie (he behaves so well for her). We finally did some trot poles so hopefully we will be jumping next week.
Today we went to the common ride at Hawick. The common ride is a celebration of the capture of the British flag and the redefining of the Scottish borders. There are a wide range of horse and rider levels galloping in the common ride. Unfortunately, the weather was true to Scotland (even in the summer) and it was raining. The downpour took a break while we watched the ride and we spent a lot of time migrating back and forth from the craft tent and the beer tent.
It's going great here, I can't believe it's already halfway over!
XO
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