Typical Irish Hack (to be compared with Typical French Hack later)

Summer arrived for about six hours today, and Anne & I headed out for a quiet hack from home (mine, not hers, GiGi is staying with us for a while)

It had just started to cloud over when we set off, which made it very pleasant riding weather.  We did a short road hack :

And stopped to admire the view a few times :

The horses were so laid back with the warm weather they were almost horizontal - there were times when we thought Anne was going to have to get off GiGi & carry her!

Then we went into a couple of stubble fields, which woke both horses up no end!  We had a couple of canters, but Anne was complaining that the fields around my place are too small - she's probably right, it always seems like you have to pull up too soon.

We'll have to take a trip down to her place before all the stubble gets ploughed.

There's a real autumnal feel to everything now, all the trees and bushes are laden with fruit.  There's a great crop of blackberries, and I've spotted some damsons growing nearby - I can feel a jam-making session coming up!

We got back just as the rain was setting in for the evening - good timing or what! 

No hacking tomorrow, Regional Dressage Championships are on Sunday and poor Flurry is going to have a practice session tomorrow.  Hopefully he'll be a bit more lively than he was today, otherwise they'd better have a crash-cart ready for me when I finish riding on Sunday!