Duracell pony

I think Nell has a couple of duracell batteries stuck up her ass... she is that fit at the moment. We went on an intense ride with LOTS of trotting. The first trot was exhausting... for me anyway. She was somewhat lethargic to begin with after stuffing herself all night with grass so I had to sqeeze everytime I sat. Driving her up that hill was painfully hard.

Halfway around the ride she started to perk up and the trotting was steady rather than *rise... Squeeze! rise... Squeeze!* Nor was it at the other extreme of having to stand because her trot's too fast to sit then rise to.

We had a couple of nice canters with good clear aids, resulting in a canter straight off the leg instead of the awful extension. Both canters were steady and controlled.

Overall it was an enjoyable ride but all that trotting really tired me out and I sweated buckets. As for Nell? No sweat. literally. Not under the girth, saddle or the elbows. She was as clean as when I took her out.

The weather is set for rain tomorrow but on the off chance that it is clear in the evening, Emma and I are heading down to the beach. I'll work her hard then and see - after the climb up the cliffs - if she actually sweats.

Oh and update on Rocky: He's absolutely fine. Just a pulled muscle as we suspected although after his fall he had a couple of small nosebleeds. They havn't come back since though so he's almost back to normal.