Today, for the first time in months, the sun shone, the sky was blue and there were hardly any clouds in the sky.<\/p>\n
To celebrate this rare event I cut things short at 1.30 and headed up to the yard.<\/p>\n
A short while later Tom and I were hacking up the track, and across the lane and on to… the racing gallops.<\/p>\n
I love those gallops.<\/p>\n
White post-and-rail and a daily-harrowed sandbed to ride on make the experience almost too good to describe.<\/p>\n
We jogged in through the start bend, settled in to an easy canter and held it for the first 1\/4 mile.<\/p>\n
And then I took a short, forward seat, gave away a little more contact and asked Tom if he had any more.<\/p>\n
Lots!, was his reply.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
That was, without doubt, the fastest that Tom and I have ever been. I’m still smiling.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
If I could find a show-jumping arena on grass, I’d be there like a shot!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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