the never ending hack

So last Wednesday Sunny & Dusty went on the longest hack of all time! Like legit, the longest hack Jack has ever done in his life lol. From our yard we can hack up to this huuuuuge woodland area with loads of bridle paths and logs and water and ditches and fun stuff to play in, you just have to hack along the road for a little bit, but luckily the majority of the drivers are quite sensible as people hack down there quite often. Well. I think it was definitely one of those where I didn't know whether the tears (which did NOT actually happen just fyi. At least not in the open. Just in my head. Many times.) where of joy or tears of terror. Probably an equal mix of both. When we first set off, I kept making Dusty slow down and walk a bit behind Sunny and then stop and wait and so I thought, hey, maybe we're getting somewhere with this stopping thing, this could turn out to be a fabulous hack. Yep. Never speak to soon. In all fairness, he has only hacked along the road a handful of times, and he was a star with all the scary things that went past; lorries, trains, horses running round etc- not a problem! Sunny was so good to lead him past them all without a care in the world :) The only problem we did have was standing still. Appaz when you are asked to stand still this is code for 'please be a major dickweed' and you then have to promptly throw yourself around, whether that be vertically on two feet or down on the floor, whatever takes your fancy at that exact moment. When we got to the woods, there was a little ditch on the common area which we jumped over. Sunny loves ditches and jumped it first time no problem (despite his saddle hanging halfway off haha... always check your girth ;) ) but Dusty was a little hesitant. Completely my fault because ditches freak me out so, so much.. I think because Sparkie has always hated them and they look freaking huge on a 13.3hh pony I've just got it into my head that they are super scary, so I was not helping him at all, poor baby, giving very mixed signals! Silly Beth. He did jump it after a bit or persuasion though and once he'd jumped it once he popped over it fine from a trot and a canter, kinda just like "Mum, plz stop being silly, I got this." We went into the woods for a little bit, when he was fab for all the walking parts but a complete arse for all the standing still parts, lol, but hey, I never lost my confidence enough that I had to get off him and I never felt out of control of him, so until that moment comes I'm happy to just deal with him. Really hoping this is just a phase as I'd rather he didn't go every where on two legs! Going to start introducing a command for when he goes up, as I started trying this on that hack and he seemed to be grasping the difference between 'up' and 'stand', so maybe that will work.. I'm sure we'll crack it soon :) Despite being a bit of a tit most of the way, he hacked back lovely and then we had an amazing gallop through the fields on the way home.. didn't know he had it in him to go so fast haha! Both boys were so well mannered, galloping along side each other and then coming straight back when asked and not being fizzy and jogging afterwards- they both went straight back to walking on the buckle end home! So, all was forgiven :)

first XC jump right!? ;)