Waterford Estate: Mack's winter holiday is over

This weekend Mack's winter break came to an end. I had planned to send him away to be brought back into work, but he has been so quiet I decided that I was perfectly capable of doing it myself.

My good friend Jeanette came over to give me a hand, and provide moral support. I saddled Mack up and did a little bit on in-hand work with him – walk, trot, halt, backup, to test the brakes and steering. It was all very boring for him as I’d been doing quite a bit with him last week. Once the 'pre-flight checks' were complete, we brought him into the yards.

Jeanette got the mounting block for me and I started off just leaning over him, then jumping up and down and then fully leaning over him, before slowly putting my feet in the right place and finally getting up into riding position. Mack couldn't have cared less! Jeanette was next to him, holding him with the halter over the bridle. She led us around the yard for a bit, and then we opened up the gate between the yards and I rode him through both yards. All good. Then it was time for the paddock.

We’d taped of a smaller area to ride in - just to make sure Mack didn't get any funny ideas. We started off with Jeanette leading us around, and then progressed to walking around by ourselves. I did lots of turning, halts, walks to make sure we both remembered what it was all about. Stopping took a bit of a pull on the reins at first until he remembered what it meant. It's a long way from Mack's pea-brain to his feet. We did a few small strides of trot to finish but not many. All up I rode for maybe 15-20 mins – he was so tired! Again, it was a lot for his pea-brain to take. Ciara was fascinated, watching us over the gate – her turn will come soon enough.

Sunday morning was pretty much a repeat of the previous day, but with less time spent in the yards, and less time with Jeanette walking beside me. We did a bit more trotting which got quite exciting, but he was very well behaved. Stopping and turning were much better, but he was a bit more lively as he thought he knew what it was all about. I’m going to really have to keep him busy so he doesn’t dream up his own entertainment. He had one small shy at something imaginary, but I could stop him easily so it was all good. We did probably about 30 mins which was almost a bit much for him, but Jeanette wanted to make sure I could trot a bit more than the previous day before she left me to my own devices for the rest of the week. It was so nice to be back in the saddle, he really is a cool horse.

So on to Monday, and my trainer wheels have gone home so I was on my own. Long-suffering Chris was roped into supervise for the first 10 mins or so. Mack was great, he really got the idea of transitions within the walk gait - big walk then small walk. We also did a bit more trot than the previous two days. We managed to complete a couple of egg-shaped circles with minimal fuss. Mack tires quite easily so I kept the session quite short. Chris kindly agreed to take some photos while he was supervising.