Kinna the hooley-gan

As the naughty teenager has been a bit neglected of late, I took her out for a bit of ride and lead with Ches this morning, first thing before it got too hot. Thought we'd go along by the river under the trees in the shade. This turned out to be a bad move, a) because a lot of the path is still under water from all the rain we've had and b) because all that still water means the mozzies have been breeding like crazy....

Anyway, decided to stick with it as water is a TREC obstacle and we do have a comp lined up on Sunday....

So Ches stands there and looks at the water and decides he'd like to turn round and go back now, thanks.

No, I say, let's give it a go, you never know, it might be fun........Nope, says he, I want to go back up the path and eat this nice grass. No come on, Ches, back to the water.....and so on. After a few minutes of this Kinna obviously gets fed up with the whole going round in circles business and decides to investigate this strange wet stuff with a delicate foreleg. Oh, I can put both feet in, she thinks. And have a drink....

No problem! And look, I can splash it all over everyone if I scrape my hooves (had to put the camera away at this point as it's not waterproof.......). Given this example, and that of Choccy racing though the water over and over again and adding to the general wetness of my clothing, Ches decides it's not full of monsters waiting to eat him and wades gamely through the big lake of water to the dryer mudbank opposite. And carries on, not even hesitating at the next lake across out path.

Great, I think, nice hack shaping up after all. Then we come to the tree down across the path. No problem, another bit of TREC practise, Ches steps over it nicely. Not so the teenager, who soars effortlessly over the log and attempts to go hooleying off up the path.....I really need a helmetcam for moments such as this!!

I get her back under control, we carry on. Now the game is every time the dog comes up behind us, try to scoot forwards and take off. Every time the dog goes past us, try to chase after her, in between times, bite Ches on the neck and see if he'll play with me, you get the idea.......

We bounce along the river path in this manner until we come to a completely submerged area, so I backtrack and find a deer trail up into the vineyard next door. At the end of the path is another log, Ches steps over it, the kangaroo on the end of the leadrope takes to the air once more........

Then it's back to the dog baiting game......

Can I chase her? Go on, let me......

We eventually get to the road and turn for home, and a new trick comes out, let's stop dead and see if she'll let me stay here and eat all this grass. I manage to stop Ches before we run out of leadrope and we then have a short battle of wills until she starts moving again. After a while I find a shady spot and stop for some authorised grazing. And we head back, by now it's very hot, so Kinna reverts to dope on a rope mode.......does this look like a troublemaker to you?

Gotta love her, never a dull moment. She's brave though, and if we can get that energy channelled I reckon she'd be a good eventer. Now I just need to find someone mad enough to be her jockey.....