Scenic route to the cross rail

The paddock has been drying out for a whole day, and then more rain came overnight. So we're doing our warm up in the park.


We go into trot pretty much immediately. I make sure I change diagonals every now and again. Then we walk into the valley, and from there do a fast canter up the winding road. It takes us about 2 minutes, and Crownie is happy to slow down at the top. Then it's more walk into the next valley, trot out of the valley, and all the way until the returning track. This is a steep 1km climb - we gallop. Crownie comes back to walk before we reach the top. I'm starting to push the limits of her fitness now. This is good. We walk down into the valley again, and do one last gallop on the way home. Crownie is still blowing at the gate.

We walk down to the cross rail I have set up. It's a place pole, then 12ft to cross rail, then 12ft to place pole. So you can do it in either direction. I do a couple of circles. The quality of the trot is surprisingly good. Crownie eyes the setup with suspicion, but trots over it without a fuss. Two more times and I am happy. We circle on the right rein, do the cross rail three times and we're done.