Thursday 18 February 2010

This morning...

...its still snowing, although its wet and slushy and not lying for long. We had such a lovely sunny day last Sunday that I hoped it was a turning point, but obviously not :-(

I know its still only mid -Feb, but since we've had snow off and on since before Christmas, I would have thought we were due a bit of better weather...

On a more positive note, Angel had a good day yesterday, when I finally managed to get him out hunting again - he has had a very difficult introduction to hunting as I've been too busy to get him out consistently, and then on the days when I had planned to try, the weather was so bad that there was no hunting. As you can see from his mileage, he has only been out a few times, but yesterday was the day when I really felt for the first time that he understood what his job was, and was really starting to build in confidence.

He was only out for 3 hours yesterday but the ground was difficult - wet and deep, snowy in places and often steep and slippery. It did him no end of good to have to deal with this type of terrain!

I've found the continental horses generally need much more time than the English or Irish horses to learn about how to go up and down hills and cross the country effectively. I suppose its because the warmbloods that we've had here have worked predominantly in the school before they arrived. All credit to them that, after a few trips out, they seem to get the hang of it and love the wide open spaces :-)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Nic, Just wondering if we needed to send Bob's snowboard down?! He wasn't allowed out in the snow last time for fear of injury! Thought we'd seen the last of the snow, but its quite heavy here now and settling. Hope he's coping ok, Andrea and Dave

Nic Barker said...

LOL! No, they are all (Bob included) being terribly sensible, unlike the first time it snowed back in December...Think they are all bored of the white stuff now and would rather it was Spring...like me!

To be fair, its not settling here, really, its just wet and slushy - yuk...

cptrayes said...

It's bl**dy settled here!!!!

My hunt will be off tomorrow for me unless it thaws today and overnight and I can get the lorry out. What a winter! Worst by far in the 19 years we've been here.

C