The Pony Diaries: A proper good Sunday ride

Yesterday Juniblest and I went for a 17k hack to explore some new parts of the Forest and to get a good day out. The weather wasn't really on our side, but there's no such thing as poor weather - only bad clothing! So we went out for about 3hrs and had a great time.

Not a good day for a long hack...

As it was a heavy horizontal drizzle you would expect Juniblest to be happy about me taking him into a warm and dry stable, but this boy is too much of an outdoor type for that. Normally he's very relaxed when I groom him and faff around, but yesterday all he wanted was to get out in the rain again. He kept looking out over the wall with longing in his eyes...

I think he got what he wanted!

Some beautiful autumn colours out there at the moment

Finally we found a place where I hadn't got a clue about where we were! My problem is that my sense of direction is quite good and on Juniblest who always seems to know exactly where home is I can't get lost no matter how long I ride for.. It's a blessing in one way as I think I'd lose confidence in exploring very fast if I had to keep calling for help everytime I went out for a longer ride, but on the other hand I never get that proper feeling of being out in the wild on my own when I'm able to point out where we started at any time.

I decided to enjoy the rare moment of lostness and have lunch!

Om nom nom nom - nom munch munch munch

We have an expression in Norway that I have translated (poorly) for you: without drink and food, the hero is no good! So I had this rather funny rubber cake thing while Juniblest munched away on his grass.

Oh! And at one point we encountered what I named 'devil clay'. It sucked three of Juniblest's hoof boots right off! I couldn't believe my eyes as those boots never ever fall off - I've been cantering through a lot of mud and water with them and they've never let me down, not once. When I tried to rescue them I realised this mud was extraordinarily tough and the vacuum was so strong I had to pull the boots up with both hands, standing in the same position I do when I'm lifting something very heavy.

Long story short, Juniblest became a nice colour of grey-brown and I looked like I'd fallen off or been to the spa with my clothes on..

Here, you can actually see the colour of the boots. That was not the case when we more or less swam to the safety of a gravel track..

Synthetic saddle = no worries! =D

And if that wasn't adventure enough, we managed to sneak up on some deer and snap a few shots! From horseback I see them so often I hardly notice them anymore, but the moment you take a camera with you they seem to have a deer councel or something at the other end of the Forest..

Oh, deer! A bum..