Chessington 26

22nd August 2010

Chessington Equestrian Centre, Chessington

How odd. Why is it that on Wednesday, I was too scared to canter Tom over some poles, yet today I did a 2 hour fast hack, on a very joggy and full of beans Tom, including two full pelt gallops over open heathland, without a moment's nervousness? Fabulous ride. There were 4 of us - Matt, the escort on a very forward going Cha Cha, an instructor's daughter on a bouncy Apollo, another yard worker on Harvey, and me on Tom. So I wasn't exactly in the company of beginners. Yet even that didn't make me feel nervous. We did the Esher Common 2 hour loop, except we went a quite fast so were slightly less than 2 hours. Tom was joggy from the start, and was raring to go. But as usual, he was very soft in the mouth and went at the speed I asked. It spattered with light rain a few times, but on the whole we had fine weather. We did a lot of trotting through the bridlepaths to get to Esher, then had a fast canter up the hill once we'd reached the common. Then hit the sand track on the heathland and we were off, but rather than stop where we usually do, this time we continued on for what seemed like ages to have a really nice long gallop. Then a breather, followed by another one. Tom was fabulous as usual. Then he jogged most of the way back in order to keep up with Cha Cha. I was feeling so happy on him that we even diverted to pop over a couple of logs (about 6 inches high!). Then when Apollo diverted to jump over a bigger log, I was tempted to follow, but I'd left it too late and so carried on. Next time. This was definitely one of the best rides I've had recently, and I just find it so odd that I can be so full of nerves one day, yet have not a trace of them today. Stupid head.