As the third winter (albeit our first in Finland) is starting, it's lovely to see how far we've come. Rainbow has turned 8. She was born at the end of 2006 even though her passport says a nominal 10th Jan 2007. I don't know her exact birthday, but I was told it was 'sometime in Nov–Dec'.
In the 2,5 years together we've come from this:
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| Note the amount of stuff on her – bit, flash-band, martingale... |
To this:
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| Hacking in a group of 6 horses bitless. |
And from this:
To this:
We have only participated in one competition this year in Finland, so we haven't been very 'aspirational' of late... In the autumn, this has been partly caused by the lack of decent riding space, as the outdoor sand school has been mush, so we have done all our exercise in the form of hacking. Once the manege is completed, which should be by Christmas, I promise to make more of an effort. (Although I am starting to wonder why I bother with competing in general – not sure if it's my thing truly... Perhaps more on that later...)
But despite this lack of competitions, etc., I have to say we're not lazy. I still ride Rainbow daily and, on average, she only gets 1–2 full days off a week. We went out on hack with our friends on Saturday and I must say Rainbow is at the moment one of the fittest horses at our yard. Cantering and galloping at speed hardly gets her out of breath, while there were some horses that actually got left behind when we went for it. Quite pleased with that – the galloping has brought an inner jockey out in me ;). And it's even more pleasing to know that we're the same using bitless, so if you are thinking of going bitless, do it – it's so worth it.
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