Trekking around Grizedale

Today was glorious sunshine and Chris's cousin Jane and her son Cameron brought their horse Harley up to visit Danny and have a long ride out around Grizedale.

Harley is only a youngster and hasn't yet done a lot of longer distance treks where he has to cope with lots of stony tracks, hills, streams and bogs, but you wouldn't know it as he coped admirably. Because we only had two horses between three of us, we took it in turns to use a mountain bike as a third mount! It was a very hot day and occasionally little lizards scuttled off the track in front of us.

We stopped for lunch overlooking Coniston Water where there was a breeze to keep some of the pesky flies at bay. A few sailing boats glided across the surface and I imagined what a blissful day it would be on the sparkling water. One thing missing from this ride was a cooling dip for both horses and riders; perhaps I could find a way to build this in next time!

The horses had a good munch on the lovely wild grasses and a drink from a stream while we enjoyed the view and some butties.

Then it was time to mount up again and follow the dusty tracks through the forest. The extremely dry weather this year means that the tracks are very hard and we had to limit ourselves to walking most of the time.

It was so hot that none of us felt overly speedy anyway and the horses stepped out smartly, covering the ground with ease despite our thinking that they might lack a bit of fitness, so that there was no need to push them on.

We were very pleasantly surprised at how fit Danny and Harley are. In the end we were out for five hours and they both looked fresh as little daisies on arriving back at the farm. Things are looking good for some more adventures this summer!