Training Ride 17th/18th July 2012

When I got to the yard on tuesday morning it was pouring with rain. Cognac lives out 24/7 and although he has a fantastic Weatherbeeta rug and he was dry underneath, he felt quite cold. So I stripped him off, hanging his rug up to dry, and put a dry one back on so that he could warm up a little while eating his breakfast.

The weather report said that it would be raining on and off all day and I was concerned about Cognac getting cold at night, also as he now has his summer coat. So I took his rainsheet with us- laying it over his quarters and wrapping it round my legs so that I could hold it in place with my knees. I took the back straps off of the rug and replaced it with a fillet string- then I just tied the belly straps up in a knot. This worked really well to keep us warm and dry, when we didn't need it on I folded it up into a long strip and laid it over the front of the saddle, again holding it in place with my knees.

Cognac really needed his rug that night! It was a cold night so I also put a opened out sleeping bag under his rug, which worked really effectively and was still in place in the morning.

We covered 27 miles on the first day and roughly the same on the second day, Cognac has loads of energy on the second day and was eager to trot and canter alongside the bike that accompanied us. When we got back to the yard he looked really good and hadn't dropped any weight.