gates!

are not good, especially when they are on a steep hill and come towards you. we ended up on the downhill side of the gate from friend's horse, with gate shut .... doh.

I could feel a stressy me moment coming on, so got off .... and no where to get back on again

anyway, monf was a good lad on a new direction for him - he led along the road past blackdene, down the dip up the other side, all the way along to cocken lane, down there for some ofit until i asked Lynne to come ahead (partly because we were steaming so far ahead of her in walk....) then along past Gaynor's at ford cottage - up through the park.

But we didn't go straight up the track - should have done - to Harbour House Drive, we went up the hill to the gate in the middle, described above....

so i walked him along the next field and down to Harbour House to get back on at a mounting block..

i don't trust my ability to climb onto logs and stay balanced!

then along the back drive and led though the ford with no hesitation at all, had to wait for lynne - then tried to d the gate into the field on the right - guess what, my left wrist won't do that (TBH, not sure my right wrist is strong enough any more, bearing in mind i had to get someone else to punch holes in girth straps!)

trot up the side of that field, back onto track and out onto road (lynne had to do a another gate!) and then up another field to yard

good ride.

the one thing about the land is there's very few rides you can do without meeting gates somewhere, and if i find i am physically unable to do them (irrespective of whether monf is trained to, it's about the strength, or lack of, in my wrists) then it's a bit sad....

surrounded by flies virtually all the way - not landing on him, but all round, lynne's horse not nearly so plagued!

edited to add: i did try and post something yesterday, but it clearly hasn't published (from the tablet, not the PC... always a shade iffy depending on signal strength!)