Wednesday, 14 July 2010

In praise of Felix

Felix is one of those horses who is so good that (although he could never be taken for granted) you can, very occasionally, overlook him, simply because he does everything with no fuss, absolutely competently and perfectly calmly.
I decided that the least I could do was give him a blog of his very own...
Although he is only just over 15.1hh, he is the unquestioned team leader as far as the other horses are concerned; if you ever need to move horses, just lead Felix and everyone else will follow. He doesn't throw his weight around, but then again he doesn't need to...

He worked hard hunting last season, clocking up the highest mileage of all our horses, and was ridden by at least 5 different people, all of whom had a fabulous day with him.
Equally, when Lady's owners came up to ride, he was a perfect gentleman for a small 10 yr old rider, going in front or behind at whatever pace she asked, and doing his utmost to enable her to open and close tricky gates.

Then last Sunday we had a cattle break out, and the quickest way to get them back was to go on horseback. I grabbed Felix, chucked a saddle on him and literally went flat-out up for a mile and a half along the road. Bringing them back, we had to herd them onto the lane and then (on a single-track road) get past them. Felix rose to the occasion yet again and went at full speed up the verge and through them - no mean achievement when the mooks are galloping as well(!). He had to do this twice, as Bailey was so over-excited about the whole thing (she adores moving cows but, like a collie, takes it all a bit too seriously) that Andy had no brakes at all...

As I've said time and again over the last 6 years, thank goodness for Felix.

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