The ideal day for a ride
Today hit the sweet spot- warm, bright and sunny but too early in the year for flies and still cool enough to go a little without having to worry about cooking the ponies.
Heading out on a new ( to us ) trail around the side of the common.
We went to the top of the hill basically just to pose.
An entirely sufficient reason for the ascent.
A white horse on a black field. It looks like they're just kicking loose and doing some dressage there, but actually I think Small was complaining about having been asked to stand still.
Makes for a nice image though.
Small heads back from his mean exile on the blackened ground to rejoin the path.
As we rode along the ridge we watched a skylark rise from a birch sapling by the path and glide away on downswept wings.
As there seemed to be a lot of army activity ahead on the ridge ( the common is a military training area ) we turned off down the hillside and onto the open heath. Spotting a broad fire break up a hill to our right we paused for a moment and then turned onto it. Small started cantering in his brisk yet steady way almost immediately, Zorro quick behind him. At some point I may have shouted out loud "THIS IS BRILLIANT!"
I'm not sure rides get much better than that.
The full moon caught between branches. I once wrote a poem about that, when I was small.
I finally got to play with my new camera's ability to use long shutterspeeds. At 15 seconds the moon is out of focus partly because it has moved.
The white line across the bottom is the traffic on the A3 passing alongside the valley. In a few months they will open the road tunnel below the hill and this road will be gone.
Tomorrow may be a five-horse day so I guess it's probably bedtime...
Heading out on a new ( to us ) trail around the side of the common.
We went to the top of the hill basically just to pose.
An entirely sufficient reason for the ascent.
A white horse on a black field. It looks like they're just kicking loose and doing some dressage there, but actually I think Small was complaining about having been asked to stand still.
Makes for a nice image though.
Small heads back from his mean exile on the blackened ground to rejoin the path.
As we rode along the ridge we watched a skylark rise from a birch sapling by the path and glide away on downswept wings.
As there seemed to be a lot of army activity ahead on the ridge ( the common is a military training area ) we turned off down the hillside and onto the open heath. Spotting a broad fire break up a hill to our right we paused for a moment and then turned onto it. Small started cantering in his brisk yet steady way almost immediately, Zorro quick behind him. At some point I may have shouted out loud "THIS IS BRILLIANT!"
I'm not sure rides get much better than that.
The full moon caught between branches. I once wrote a poem about that, when I was small.
I finally got to play with my new camera's ability to use long shutterspeeds. At 15 seconds the moon is out of focus partly because it has moved.
The white line across the bottom is the traffic on the A3 passing alongside the valley. In a few months they will open the road tunnel below the hill and this road will be gone.
Tomorrow may be a five-horse day so I guess it's probably bedtime...