05/10/2026
With all the shows done for this year, we’re back to doing what we do best, happy hacking! We had a lovely Sunday afternoon ride yesterday with Darcy, Rainie and Robin.
Robin has really figured out that he can do second gear now without dying of the strain, and had his second trot under saddle with Merida yesterday. He was happy, calm and relaxed. I didn’t have my phone on me to get a beautiful side on video of him as I ran alongside, but Tash managed to get one after of him popping our usual log on the way home. I really think he’ll be our next young pony following in Reggie’s footsteps in ridden classes next year 🤞🤞🤞
As for Darcy, after experiencing a few strides of canter on the lead rein with Reggie, Merida has been desperate to have a canter on Darcy. But no matter how fast Tash has run, Darcy has remained in trot, though she has performed some fabulous extended trots indeed!
However, we were approaching one of the logs we pop over on the way back home, and Merida was going to trot Darcy over it like usual. I went first with Robin, hopped over, then turned to wait for Darcy, only to see Darcy cantering beautifully down the track towards me and before flying over the log and coming to a gradual controlled stop behind Robin. She kept Merida aboard the whole time.
Despite looking absolutely terrified during the experience, once she’d stopped and realised what she’d done, Merida was over the moon to have ridden her first proper canter, completely off the lead, and rounding it off with a jump over a log to boot.
We should have caught this momentous first on camera, but mommy was too busy covering her eyes until it was all over 😂