On our first ride out, Jo and I only
intended to go for about an hour since she hasn't ridden for a year or so. We
went up St. Catherine's Down and across to the Hoy Tower which is dedicated to
the allied forces that fought at Sebastapol (rather than our Olympic cyclist!).
The views from up there are absolutely glorious. In the event the ride took three hours as we
had to retrace our steps because there was a big Hereford Bull on one of the
bridle-paths. Ordinarily these are a quiet breed of cattle but he seemed to be
in a particularly bad mood and was charging around at the cows and calves. This
meant we had to brave a section of road again where there seemed to be a
regular parade of big buses and tractors. These vehicles rarely slow down and
with steep hedgerows either side, there is nowhere to go. We breathed a sigh of
relief when we reached the Down again.
Dillon could have been forgiven for
thinking he was in Mr Ben's costume shop in the afternoon as we had saddles out
of every size and shape to see which he and Debbie might prefer. He has been
running backwards and threatening to rear when she attempts to mount him and I
think he has been clearly signalling that the saddle just isn't right. This
afternoon he stood so quietly while we tried on the Torsion first and then the
Western saddle. I used clicker training to reward him for standing still, and he allowed Debbie to get on his back
without a murmur. This meant that we could give each saddle a good trial.
Although he seemed fine in the Torsion he moved even better in the Western. The
disadvantage with both of these saddles is that it is difficult or impossible
to do the girth up tighter once you are on board but it is easier to get the
Western girthed up properly before getting on. The Torsion is inclined to slip
unless really overtightened or going through the rigmarole of finding a good
anti-slip numnah. For older established horses it's probably okay not to have
the girth done up quite so securely because they are more balanced. Another two
saddles to try on tomorrow...
