Those boys are good...

Charlie, Hector and Jacko were out hunting AGAIN yesterday.  There is a real end-of-term atmosphere and having missed so many days this season because of work, and having the horses out with other people, I have been determined to get these last 3 days in :-)

I must say that the boys  - including Felix of course - have been absolute stars this season.  Charlie in particular has worked his socks off, and carried 8 different people, hunting twice a week for most of the season.  Hector has grown up immensely, and felt yesterday as if he could have carried on for twice as long, even though we had a very fast (if short) day.  

I have invested in a gadget that tells me how far and how fast we have gone, mostly because it would be fascinating to use it for a season and work out how many miles the horses have done.  It also provides objective evidence of barefoot performance, which I think will be very useful over time. 

So yesterday, we were finished by 3pm but had a fast day, and covered 22 miles or 35 km.  The GPS also logs the time you are stopped, so it tells me that we covered that distance in just over 3 hours.  What it can't tell you is that the terrain was very nasty indeed.  Either very stony tracks or deep moorland, which was wet again after the last couple of days.  No really steep hills yesterday, but tough on hooves and tendons.  

The best bit is that the boys are all fit and happy this morning, and have suffered no ill effects.  One visitor  who comes down from Leicestershire remarked on how good all the horses were looking yesterday - you really wouldn't guess that they are all at the end of a long, hard season, which is a credit to their fitness.