I was invited to hack out with some friends on Saturday afternoon. So I arrived at the farm an hour before anticipating a muddy horse. I was right, Santana no longer had white socks, so the shampoo and a stiff brush had to be deployed vigorously to restore them, along with copious amounts of water. Santana is such a sweetie - he lifts up each hind hoof spontaneously so I can scrub his heels. (I suspect this is really his way of trying to avoid the cold water but I like to think he's trying to be helpful!) Once we were all scrubbed and tacked up we were ready to roll. Five of us set off for 'the meadow' - one of our regular hacks. I haven't been there for ages, but one of the last times I went Santana had a fit of excitement and bucked me off, so that memory came flooding back. I was determined this was going to be a good ride and nothing was going to spoil it.
Halfway round the meadow three of our party decided they wanted to have a canter up the hill. Me and my friend were happy to continue walking around the path and we agreed to meet up back at the top. They thundered off up the hill at a full gallop and Santana craned his neck trying to see them and jogged to let me know that he would quite like to do that too. I told him in no uncertain terms that that was not going to happen and he reluctantly accepted it.
All in all it was a fabulous ride. Santana behaved wonderfully and listened to me the whole time. A happy hack was had by all!
Here he is back home enjoying a well earned dinner.
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