This blog post comes with an apology on Sian's behalf for being too busy having fun with me in the woods to right a blog post. I've had a stern neigh and a snort at her and she's agreed to apologise!
Anyway, I must say we have been going on some much more interesting rides these last few days and getting out for over an hour at a time! The first day, Damien came with us. I shouldn't really say this but Sian and him spent a lot of time having stern words with each other and I heard Sian saying it was because she was feeling a little worried. Goodness me, how hard do I have to try to prove to her she has nothing to worry about! First of all, she was worried about crossing a busy junction to get to the bridle path, no problem for me, I just stood there and nibbled on her foot to reassure her I wasn't even looking forward so I wouldn't go without her telling me. Damien came up next to me just in case (as if!) I went anywhere. Then we got to the bridle path and Sian had forgotten that it was next to some fields of horses. So then she decided Damien (who I heard her tell to walk behind) should walk along beside us (I don't think Damien was very pleased because he kept doing big sighs like I do when I'm feeling a bit fed up...) Anyway, I wasn't even bothered about the horses (I'm a one man band and all that - I don't have the time for getting stressed about these things). You'd think wouldn't you, that this would reassure her? Well, it did, temporarily... Because it was at this point she decided to try something new: a canter!! Well, we did a few strides and then she let me slow down again as we had ran out of nice soft ground and gone onto some harder mud and, I'm not going to lie, I was heading to some grass that may or may not have thorny bushes next to it... The point is though, we did it. She seemed that excited about it that when we got to the next bit she was off again wanting a canter - 'my goodness woman, calm yourself down!' I said but there was no stopping her. Even poor Damien was jogging to keep up at this point.
So, she was all happy and smiley and singing my praises and so forth until she saw these horses coming down the hill. I heard her saying to Damien to come up alongside again (which you can imagine he was thrilled about) and then to 'be ready' in case I tried to follow them... Seriously? If horses could roll their eyes... Down the rather narrow path came a man with a rather bouncy looking bay horse, followed by a woman on another. He said something about my fly veil being a good idea and Sian sort of squeaked in reply... 'Get a grip Sian!' I said, but I don't think she could hear as she was doing her breathing "In 1,2,3....out 1,2,3...." she thinks I don't know she's doing it...Well, I turned around and belted down the bridle path after the horses and threw a few bucks in for good measure...
Only joking - I was just checking you were still awake! In fact, I did a half ditch attempt to turn my head to look at them going past and Sian straightened me up again and talked jibberish to me for a while and then they were miles in the distance and we were wandering along all happy again.
In the woods, there were some interesting noises, I guess someone was having a party because there were lots of echoing laughs and squeals...not that I was bothered and by this point, even Sian was chilling out a bit. I heard Damien say he was feeling a bit stressed by it all but I'm pretty sure that was to do with Sian making demands of him to "go behind," "get alongside," "go in front!" at various points (she did say she was sorry when we got into the woods and that it was "Kennedy's first time on his own up here" - that's right Sian, blame the horse for you being a baby). The woods were fab, we just walked as the floor is quite stony so Sian likes to let me pick my own path a bit. I find this quite fun as sometimes I like to take her on a walk through a tree...sometimes a little leg through a hedge....sometimes a few nettles.... whatever tickles my fancy really. Meanwhile, Sian's sat on board telling Damien that I'm such the nicest horse in the world and so gentle and so kind and calm (I'm quite enjoying this!) and that any other horse having seen those other horses would have gone after them or at least done something and good old Kennedy... I am though aren't I?
So next, the ultimate test. First, a dog who was quite excited to see me (luckily on a lead). That was fine. Then...wait for it....a group of men (I'll repeat MEN) on BMX bikes flying uncontrollably down the side of a hill towards us and then skidding sideways onto a path about 3 metres ahead of wear I was standing now stock still waiting for them to get control. A couple added in a bit of a 'whoop!' just for extra good scaring measure. Damien looked at me and I looked at Damien and for a moment I think a thought passed between us. A bit of an 'pfffffffffff....' moment. These plonkers then stopped on the path right in front of us for a good few minutes congratulating each other on managing to make said dangerous, ridiculous drop onto unseen forest path and make it down in one piece...Don't mind us, will you? Then, they all skidded round on their bikes and disappeared down another dirt track as quickly as they came. Sian was somewhere between fuming and glowing - one mintue she was slating these 'clowns' and another she was singing my praises again. I didn't bat an eyelid (of course) and even Damien has now begun acknowledging what a 'good boy' I am. I do try you know...
Sian jumped off and led me down the steep bit at the end again, which she was quite glad of because I tried to eat a bush at one point and tripped over my own foot - well I can't always be perfect you know... When she got to the bottom, I stood on Damien's toe a bit (his fault) which went down like a lead balloon. And then Sian jumped back on. We then contended with a very loud sit on lawnmower behind a hedge right next to us. By this point, I could feel Sian relaxing. I know what she was thinking. "You ride your sit on lawnmower right next to Kennedy if you want - he's unshakable!" else she was thinking "I'd rather you didn't but I'm getting pretty confident Kenners won't do anything..." I can't quite decide at the moment...We walked back through the estate and round to the farm without further drama (well with the exception of a few drains - I just like to watch them in case anything jumps out and chases me up the road - so far nothing*). Sian was absolutely beaming when we got back. She was telling Damien 'sorry for stressing him out' and that 'we did amazing' (we did) and that she felt 'great!' I felt great when she put me a little hay net up!
The next evening, she turned up with a girl called 'Zara' and a 'present'. By the way, someone needs to tell her what a 'present' is because I'd say that a new smaller girth is not my idea of a 'present'. She said I was on '6 and 6' now, more or less on my current girth and that it was getting hard to put up from where she was sitting up there. So she tried the other girth mummy Caroline had given her to try but it was still a bit on the short side (she said 48 inches compared to my current 54 inch girth) so she popped out to the shop and bought me a 52 inch one which was exactly the same as my 54 inch one just 2 inches smaller. She says, in hindsight, that maybe we could have got a 50 inch because this one has already gone up quite far. It must be all these walks in the woods and this lesser grass field. So, feeling a bit sorry for me, she popped a little hay out in my field after our second long woodland walk. I was munching away happily with 2 pairs of greedy eyes looking over the fence at me! Oops, Sian had to go and get them a handful each while I ate mine!Zara hasn't really had anything to do with horses before but she loves to walk so I think Sian had coerced her into walking with us into the woods. She was pretty good company (except she kept complaining about the hills) and she gave me a great big fuss when we got back to the farm - she says she likes stroking my soft nose. Sian said she thinks I liked it because I followed her around the courtyard but actually, I thought she might have some food!
Anyway, I've probably given you enough to read about tonight. I'll be back with more adventures!
For now, I will say good eveneigh to you all and hope you have a good weekend.
*On a side note, is this place actually made of drains? We must pass at least 20 on our estate hacks! It's like aversion therapy! I'm actually beginning to trust some of them now so I think it's working...well except for the noisy one of Carnoustie Road...I'm never going to befriend that gluggy thing!
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