Woodland hacking in October

While on my horse-riding vacation this past month, I had the opportunity to twice hack out with the beautiful bay horse pictured below, Darcy - once in the middle of a typical British rainstorm, and on both occasions through the stunning autumnal woodland of Joyden's Woods, an area of ancient woodland located southeast of Bexleyheath and southwest of Dartford. Given that she is considered the lazy cob of the stable, I was pleased to see the progress she made under my leadership. In record time she began to respond well to my carefully executed half-halts; and within 10 minutes was riding forward with impulsion in a well-collected trot and canter, in response to the subtlest possible aids.

On the second occasion (this time in good and uncharacteristically warm weather for mid-October), Darcy was clearly keen to hack again, and performed beautifully for me the full two hours. Her energy was relentless; the slightest lightening of the saddle and she would drive forward with impulsion. The change of landscape has clearly been great for her. At the end of the hack, several grooms were pleasantly surprised to see the sweat she had built up from all her hard work trotting and cantering, and she was very calm and friendly when unsaddled and returned to her stable.

All in, great progress made with this horse. I want her to associate me with picturesque hacking - I have seen riders use both crops and spurs to force this poor mare forward; with me she knows not to expect anything of the sort, only vocal encouragement and a chance to stretch her legs in the great British outdoors.

Drenched - following a one-hour mid-rainstorm hack through woodland