Long lining al fresco

A bit of a scorcher of a day for England-land. Bright sunshine, blue sky and the World and his wife out and about on the bridleways. I choose not to hack out on the weekends this time of year; there's just too much commotion on the ground with runners, cyclists, loose dogs and ramblers with shiny sticks (Max really hates the shiny sticks!). Then in the air there are hot air balloons, gliders, biplanes and all sorts of airy buzzers to put a pony off his stride.

So we stick to the paddock if the weather is fine and avoid the hoopla of mad dogs and Englishmen going out in the midday sun. Although that means we're out in the midday sun too, so I guess that makes us either mad or English...

Today we tried long lining in the long field by the indoor school, with the help of grass reins. I had to use Max's saddle rather than the roller, and I also chose to use his Dually halter rather than his bridle, but it still worked a treat. Fly fringe fitted to keep his face clear of pesky biters, fly spray on to keep the rest of him irritation free, and the grass reins to keep his sweet head up and on the job.

Max got down to business quickly and we had a very pleasing session with lots of bending, a bit of reining back, trotting in straight lines up and down hill, then trotting a circle around me, with a bit of canter thrown in.

One of our downhill trots got a little bit out of control as Max spotted the hedgerow and was clever enough to realise the grass reins would not bar his eating there, and he started to drag me down hill at speed. I had to drop one line, but managed to hold on to the other and turn him away from the hedge, more by luck than judgment.

There was, shortly after this, one fit of pique when Max chucked all his toys out of the pram in a proper strop. We had a couple of little bucks and some head shaking.

"Grass EVERYWHERE and I can't have any. Not fair!"

We soon soothed the strop away though and carried on to the finish our session with no more pouting. Then, much to Max's delight, girth loosened, lines removed, lead rope clipped on and grass reins unclipped so he could have a nosh on his way back to his box.