Miles and miles, up and down...

Following on from the discovery that we average about 25 miles a day out hunting, even on a relatively quiet day, I took the head cam out again yesterday for the last big day of the season -there are actually 2 more days to go, probably, but the last Friday is traditionally a day for visitors and has a holiday atmosphere :-)

I've posted this clip, which I hope gives a feel for the sort of terrain we cover.  The giveaway is the sound - you can hear better than see what the ground is like underfoot!

Jacko, the grey horse, Charlie (the bright bay who is plaited up in the footage of the first day) and of course the horse I was riding, Felix, are all barefoot, and Charlie and Felix have been out twice a week for most of this season.  

Of course we have some lovely gallops over old pasture, but we also spend a fair amount of time on flinty tracks, and on any day you will have roadwork and deep ground thrown in as well. 

You'll see that there aren't any jumps, but the ground we cover can be challenging, partly because we have steep gradients, partly because the horses have to be clever over wet ground, and partly because we have long days.  

Yesterday, for instance, we started at 11am and didn't get back to the trailers till just after 6pm.  

Despite that, the horses are full of beans even after a long day - a large proportion of the footage was shot after 5pm yesterday, and the horses were still keen to gallop, and more importantly they are all in very good form this morning.