Brennig Jones (and friends)

Today, for the first time in months, the sun shone, the sky was blue and there were hardly any clouds in the sky.

To celebrate this rare event I cut things short at 1.30 and headed up to the yard.

A short while later Tom and I were hacking up the track, and across the lane and on to… the racing gallops.

I love those gallops.

White post-and-rail and a daily-harrowed sandbed to ride on make the experience almost too good to describe.

We jogged in through the start bend, settled in to an easy canter and held it for the first 1/4 mile.

And then I took a short, forward seat, gave away a little more contact and asked Tom if he had any more.

Lots!, was his reply.

We slipped effortlessly from a working canter to a fast hunting canter, and within a further two dozen strides Tom relaxed some more, opened up his chest and showed just how easy it was for him to change up to a gallop.

He held his easy, large-striding, ground-covering gallop until I asked him to ease back to a slower pace as we passed the first set of white posts.

Half-a-mile of easy-moving, big-smilingly, blisteringly fast canter passed beneath us as we transited back to a working canter for the last 1/4 mile.

We hacked back to the yard the long way – a 2-1/2 mile stroll around the headlands of a few fields, the sun on our backs and (I like to think) a smile on both our faces.

That was, without doubt, the fastest that Tom and I have ever been. I’m still smiling.

If I’d put a full set of boots on Tom before we’d left the yard, we could have *cough* hacked back to the yard via the cross-country course.

I’d feel happier if we could get out and practice our cross-country and show-jumping more, our first one-day event is in two weeks and I still feel slightly under-prepared.

If I could find a show-jumping arena on grass, I’d be there like a shot!