Last night in the pub we were persuaded by Tissie and the Thames to go cubbing the following morning which seemed like a good plan at the time, but when we got up at 5.30 am and it was a thick pea soup outside it didn't seem like such a good idea. However, we stuck to our resolve and after hacking in the thick fog to the meet, I was on Jess and Doug was on Jake, it was great to be out. Both horses absolutely loved it and were really fresh and excited about seeing the hounds again. We didn't want to do too much as we were mindful of the fact that they haven't been in for very long so after just over an hour we rode back and picked up another two horses, Bryn and Goldy (the 5yr old grey horse by Goldberg) We had no idea whether the young horse had seen hounds before and it was rather a baptism of fire for him as we were hacking across the fields looking for them when the hounds came screaming past us pursued by most of the mounted followers - needless to say both horses set off at an uncomfortably fast pace and as we were going down hill the brakes weren't great. I couldn't see Doug as he was behind me, but apparently he was as out of control as I was. Someone saw that he was being tanked off with and managed to head him off whilst I thankfully found a big hedge to point Bryn at, and he ground to a reluctant halt. Having been rather sluggish on the way to the meet both horses suddenly found a new lease of life and bounced all the way home sometime later.
Great to be out again and my new hip is bearing up really well.
All horses are now in during the day and out at night until the weather breaks and then we will do it the other way around and they are all very happy to be back 'at school'.
Out tonight to meet up with old college pals Maurice and Bridge. I haven't seen them both together for ages and looking forward to catching up..