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Wow
I dreaded how long it was going to take to get the sand school back in action.
Turns out I didn't need to: I arrived at the yard this morning to find it looking remarkably clear, and (when I wandered over to check) came across the bloke who keeps it in condition: "It was much better yesterday," he said, "but then it froze again overnight...."
(He then wandered off, muttering darkly about five inches of snow tonight, but we shall see.)
Colour me impressed. It was still rather too hard in the middle to do anything but walk on it, but around the edges it was soft enough for a controlled canter or two.
GB was a little unhappy to be in there, mostly because there were So Many Scary Things and anyway he actually needs to go for a good run, but he was fairly settled through most of it (the cars on the lane, the flapping bit of netting, the tractor being fired up to tidy the muck heap, the squeaky wheelbarrow, the horse being lunged in the other pen who was obviously running away from something very scary...) until a pigeon rustled some leaves in the hedge. Perfectly reasonably, given the comparative size and attack power of horses and pigeons, GB reacted by spinning 180 degrees on the spot and flying into flat out gallop down the middle of the school. I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and called it a day, but I do think that a year ago I would have landed on the fence.
Turns out I didn't need to: I arrived at the yard this morning to find it looking remarkably clear, and (when I wandered over to check) came across the bloke who keeps it in condition: "It was much better yesterday," he said, "but then it froze again overnight...."
(He then wandered off, muttering darkly about five inches of snow tonight, but we shall see.)
Colour me impressed. It was still rather too hard in the middle to do anything but walk on it, but around the edges it was soft enough for a controlled canter or two.
GB was a little unhappy to be in there, mostly because there were So Many Scary Things and anyway he actually needs to go for a good run, but he was fairly settled through most of it (the cars on the lane, the flapping bit of netting, the tractor being fired up to tidy the muck heap, the squeaky wheelbarrow, the horse being lunged in the other pen who was obviously running away from something very scary...) until a pigeon rustled some leaves in the hedge. Perfectly reasonably, given the comparative size and attack power of horses and pigeons, GB reacted by spinning 180 degrees on the spot and flying into flat out gallop down the middle of the school. I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and called it a day, but I do think that a year ago I would have landed on the fence.