Post by yanny on Apr 15, 2015 15:46:13 GMT -1
Today we'd planned to go on a pub crawl hack! We were going to hack to the next village, stop at 2 of the pubs and then go back to our village and go to the pubs there. It was going to be a lovely relaxing, fun and chilled out experience to get James's (nervous boyfriend) confidence up.
That plan went to pot in the first ten minutes! Cal was so spooky and silly. Spooking at everything and things he would never normally bat an eye at, like signs and dustbins. To make matters worse, every farmer seemed to be out in their tractors today (Cal's worst fear)! Which meant we kept having to go down side roads and drives to turn him to face the tractor as it came past.
As you can imagine, poor James was getting quite stressed out and nervous but I told him to carry on as Cal gets better as he goes.
We decided after Cal did a big spook at a bin as a bus was coming behind to scrap the pub idea, as it involved a lot of roadwork and we weren't having much luck with the traffic today! So we took a left down a lane we'd never been down. Cal then started being so daft! He was freaking out at something (we have no idea what!) he would suddenly try to spin round and when I told James to steer him back, he would do bunny hops and little broncs!!! This was the last straw and James was telling me he really wanted to go back, but as we all know, then Cal would know he'd got away with it and being as clever as he is, he'd do it again and again. So after a lot of shouting "KEEP YOUR ******* LOWER LEG FORWARD!" Cal carried on (he did it again about three times though! The cheek!). Then we got to the end of the lane and I said, now we can turn round because we are making them turn round. Walking back was fine, Cal was very het up by this point; snorting like a dragon and with his big neck arched, jig-jogging along he looked like a white Friesian stallion! James was very pleased with himself that he'd got Cal past all that napping. And it seemed like we were back in control. Suddenly though; completely out of character and out of the blue, Cuba BOLTED! 0-30 in a nanosecond. I thought I was going to be on the floor but luckily I got my balance back. Of course Cal had followed and I got Cuba to a trot, when I heard James shout "DONT STOP! Let's keep going!"
You mad bugger. I thought. We came to a walk and I said we'll have a trot up the hill back to the village. On the hill we set off. Cal went into canter, so I pushed Cuba into canter too. We were both laughing our heads off as Cal suddenly picked up speed and went into a full gallop, overtaking me on the fit Arab, I laughed as I saw my once nervous to trot and even get on, boyfriend, galloping full pelt on a chunky little Dales; a trail of dust coming from his hind hooves and James doing very well to pull him up before the road.
The spookiness down there was quite spooky to us as well, because it was parallel to a graveyard...I wonder if the horses sensed a supernatural thing!
We laughed all the way back, and when I told James Cal was galloping, he was shocked, as he said it was so smooth. He hasn't stopped talking about it all day; saying galloping was the closest thing to flying and was the best thing he's ever done. I didn't mention that if I were less stubborn he'd have got off that pony and walked home
We had packed some sandwiches in saddlebags so popped to our local (it was closed so we just sat on the wall and let the horses graze) and ate them. Cuba and Cal were more interested in the sarnies than the lush grass!
All in all, an eventful 50 minutes!
That plan went to pot in the first ten minutes! Cal was so spooky and silly. Spooking at everything and things he would never normally bat an eye at, like signs and dustbins. To make matters worse, every farmer seemed to be out in their tractors today (Cal's worst fear)! Which meant we kept having to go down side roads and drives to turn him to face the tractor as it came past.
As you can imagine, poor James was getting quite stressed out and nervous but I told him to carry on as Cal gets better as he goes.
We decided after Cal did a big spook at a bin as a bus was coming behind to scrap the pub idea, as it involved a lot of roadwork and we weren't having much luck with the traffic today! So we took a left down a lane we'd never been down. Cal then started being so daft! He was freaking out at something (we have no idea what!) he would suddenly try to spin round and when I told James to steer him back, he would do bunny hops and little broncs!!! This was the last straw and James was telling me he really wanted to go back, but as we all know, then Cal would know he'd got away with it and being as clever as he is, he'd do it again and again. So after a lot of shouting "KEEP YOUR ******* LOWER LEG FORWARD!" Cal carried on (he did it again about three times though! The cheek!). Then we got to the end of the lane and I said, now we can turn round because we are making them turn round. Walking back was fine, Cal was very het up by this point; snorting like a dragon and with his big neck arched, jig-jogging along he looked like a white Friesian stallion! James was very pleased with himself that he'd got Cal past all that napping. And it seemed like we were back in control. Suddenly though; completely out of character and out of the blue, Cuba BOLTED! 0-30 in a nanosecond. I thought I was going to be on the floor but luckily I got my balance back. Of course Cal had followed and I got Cuba to a trot, when I heard James shout "DONT STOP! Let's keep going!"
You mad bugger. I thought. We came to a walk and I said we'll have a trot up the hill back to the village. On the hill we set off. Cal went into canter, so I pushed Cuba into canter too. We were both laughing our heads off as Cal suddenly picked up speed and went into a full gallop, overtaking me on the fit Arab, I laughed as I saw my once nervous to trot and even get on, boyfriend, galloping full pelt on a chunky little Dales; a trail of dust coming from his hind hooves and James doing very well to pull him up before the road.
The spookiness down there was quite spooky to us as well, because it was parallel to a graveyard...I wonder if the horses sensed a supernatural thing!
We laughed all the way back, and when I told James Cal was galloping, he was shocked, as he said it was so smooth. He hasn't stopped talking about it all day; saying galloping was the closest thing to flying and was the best thing he's ever done. I didn't mention that if I were less stubborn he'd have got off that pony and walked home
We had packed some sandwiches in saddlebags so popped to our local (it was closed so we just sat on the wall and let the horses graze) and ate them. Cuba and Cal were more interested in the sarnies than the lush grass!
All in all, an eventful 50 minutes!
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Holy Moly!!! BUT you both stuck it out, and he adores canter ~ hurahhhh 
