A couple of weeks ago, I took Bubbles to a working hunter course at a local yard. The course was already set out for us so we just rented the arena out. Bubbles has wings. That pony can jump and he absolutely loves it!

Last year Bubbles got quite bad mud rash. It was mostly on his hind legs but he ended up being stabled earlier than the other horses. At the time he was out in the field almost 24/7, but as the autumn weather began the field began to get wetter and boggier which sadly resulted in him getting mud rash. His legs were swollen due to the rash and from being stabled, so in the evenings after I had finished work I used to take him on a walk. You could tell he was frustrated but who wouldn’t be!

It took him a while to recover but we started to slowly bring him back into work again once he finished his meds and his legs were looking better. The first couple of weeks he was a dick, but that was expected. We started off with some light hacking or light schooling. I didn’t want to put him through too much too soon, so we stopped his jumping for a few months.

When summer arrived this year, we still hadn’t gotten back into jumping. We both love jumping and both missed it, but we never really got around to getting back into it. Then Bubbles’s owner L tagged me in a post of facebook which was advertising this working hunter course. The yard where the course is, is about a 15-20 minute walk away on a country lane, so we didn’t need to hire a van or worry about how we were going to get there and back and it meant my mum could walk with us too. So I booked us in one afternoon.

The weather was a lot sunnier and warmer than I thought it would be on the day. Bubbles, my mum and me began to walk to the yard (technically I was the only one who didn’t walk…) and when we arrived Bubbles instantly woke up. He was very responsive to my cues and was 100% listening to me. I picked a cross pole fence for us to try out first and he flew over it! Took me by surprise, but after that Bubbles was on it! We were flying over those fences! I think it made us both realise how much we missed jumping. I’ll admit I was a little rusty with my position especially, so that I want to work on before I leave for Oz, but over all we had an amazing day!

After about 40 minutes me and Bubbles were both dripping in sweat so we decided to call it a day and we strolled back to the yard where he had a bath and spent the rest of his day out in the field sunbathing with his friends. It was a good day! Something we all enjoyed and I’ll remember forever.

As I am not allowed to upload videos on here yet…those pictures from the day will have to do, but I think over the next few weeks me and Bubbles will get back into jumping, especially now that he is stronger and healthier. Hopefully we will be able to create a few more memorable days before I leave for Australia.

Sending my love to you and your 4 legged companions,

Emma xo