If you go down to the woods today...

[alobear]

...you're sure to meet a great many horses. They're resurfacing one of the indoor schools today, so most people had to go out on hacks instead of having lessons. There were seven riders in our group, we passed at least three other rides along the way and I saw a couple more crossing the path in the distance.

We walked and trotted through the woods and it was fun - normally, I'd miss not having a canter, but I had a late night last night, so I was happy to take things easy this morning.

I rode Toby, who is probably the most responsive horse I've ever ridden on a hack. He distinguished between the signals for "walk faster" and "trot", he listened to me when the horses in front started trotting and I didn't want him to, and he moved to the correct bit of the path with just a squeeze from one of my legs. As we were trotting up one of the hills, I could tell he was dying to break into canter, and it was so tempting just to let him go, but I didn't give in, and he wasn't that hard to keep in trot.

Like Jim, whom I rode on the last hack, I'd love to ride Toby in the school and see what he can really do.