So far this year.....

Kinna has done a whole 28kms, most of them under saddle. Bearing in mind last year she did a mere 70kms (recorded) out and about in 12 months, she should be seeing a whole lot more of the world in 2013.

Have been taking her out with Ali on board but still on the lead rope, just in case. Most of the time she is fine, a bit bouncy to start with usually and prone to the odd bucking fit if her feet touch grass and she's not allowed to eat it, but generally she is getting the idea that she needs to take some notice of the person on her back!

The aim for me is to get the whole going for a hack thing to be so ordinary she takes it for granted. Already she is better with a lot of the things that used to freak Seraphina out - like Ali shifting her weight on her back:

 

....and going in front sometimes (makes the rope juggling for me a bit tricky, mind you!)

 

The only thing that bothered her on today's hack was a couple of deer bursting out of the woods and bounding across the road in front of us, even big G was startled by that! But he just stood and stared, whereas Kinns was prancing around snorting with her little excuse for a tail in the air, wish I'd had a helmet cam as she looked rather stylish.......

When we got back to the village, we jumped the ditch where she'd had her little hissy fits before at not being able to eat, and she did it perfectly, without even a head shake. So she got some grass :-)

And Ali tried her standing dismount back home, not bovvered one bit!

Full of the joys of spring.......

Very "interesting" walk out with Sky this morning, lots of silliness and spooking.......which is not like Little Miss Sensible at all!

We met Choccy's two greyhound mates again, she was not happy about them running round at all, them there were tractors in the vines and a MAN WITH A WHITE BUCKET!!!! Cue much snorting, jumping about and giraffing.....even after I went to talk to him (not that he was too keen on being approached by the lunatic on the other end of my leadrope.....)

She kept a very careful eye on the tractor putting in fenceposts too....eventually calmed down enough to stuff down some grass in that kind of "better eat quick cos I'll probably have to run away fom that in a second" kind of way......

Which is probably the problem, she doesn't get a lot of spring grass, but maybe it's enough to set her off. Either that or she's being a hormonal teenager at the moment.......

Still, we finished our little circuit, which involves roads, grass and lots of varied stony/gravelly/rocky bits, so all good for her feet, which are a lot less prone to chipping since the barefoot trimmer has been doing them.....