Saturday 25 August 2012

Back to work.

I got up and organised in the morning, said goodbye to Josey, who didn't charge us for staying the two nights- Thank- you! and off we went again, we found our way back on to the Sabrina Way, with was all on country lanes that day and wound our way through to Jon and Glenda's farmhouse B&B. John was very complimentary of Cognac and we were made to feel very welcome. There was a little pony on the farm that went into a stable at night, so we put Cognac out in the field, but left the gate to the yard open so that he could be near to the pony if he wanted.

In the morning we went on a horse feed hunt and found a feed place on a stable yard just down the road. They let me choose any bag and take a bucket full from it- free of charge! so we had a bucket of baileys Endurance mix and they also gave to me a little bottle of wound wash and choc biscuits and some sweets to keep me going! So Cognac had his breakfast and I packed some for lunch.

Its was a lovely sunny day and we were again following the Sabrina Way. We followed a bridleway through the woods, across some grassy fields and then down a tunnel of hedges between the fields. We then hit a bit of a bridleway black- spot. Bad or no signing and very over grown gates, a particular bad point was two bridlegates, a horse length apart with a bridge over a very overgrown ditch, lots of stinging nettles and gates that swing back on you! I looked for a way round but couldn't see anything so prepared to get stung! I dismounted, held the first gate open and posted Cognac in, before shutting the gate behind him. I think edged my way between him and the edge of the bridge, trying not to fall off, to open the next gate. The gate was so wedged with weeds that I had to climb over and pull it open from the over side, at which point Cognac had managed to maneuver himself around in the opposite direction, looking back the way we had come. So I tied the second gate open, squeezed myself back to the front end of Cognac and reversed him over the bridle, through the gate to freedom! Exhausting and time consuming! but we made it...

I enjoyed riding through Cannock Chase and as Catherine had instructed me on the phone that morning we headed for the post office tower and Catherine and Robin met us at the German memorial graveyards on the edge of the chase to show us the best route from there to their house on the edge of Cannock.

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