Horse Eye View 2

Yesterday was horse free, so today we set off for a longer ride but it didn't quite turn out that way. Left late (11:00am), sun burning down & no wind so altered plans and went in to the forest. Bavaria has a very wide ranging "freedom to roam" law that basically allows everone the right to access the countryside in particular forest, pastures & water(ways) AND to pick a "reasonable" amount of wild growing fruits! Thus there are virtually no restrictions as to where you go but of course you are required to treat the countryside appropriately. Thus you should generally stay on paths etc.
Well Sultan, Flash & I tried but the overgrown path in the foto turned out to be a dead end & not wanting to go all the way back in the somewhat hilly area, we tried to find a way ourselves - not clever at this time of year with waist high grass & very long brambles. Got to a point where I had to get off & try to find a way through that wasn't too boggy (pull off another of the new shoes) and eventually we ended up surrounded by 2 merging boggy streams. Had no idea how Sultan would react so found 2 trees on the far bank about 2 meters apart, sprang over & got behind one tree & pulled on the reins slightly. Sultan jumped over straight away. Thank goodness I was not "on board" -for the 1 meter jump he sailed about 3 meters and almost landed on Flash. Cool as a cucumber & not the slightest nervousness. Still has a problem though with tractors! Something to work on!
When we then got back on a track, headed home. Shorter than wanted but gained new insight in to Sultan's nerves. Lack of exercise for me was compensated by an hour of trying to brush out the bures in Flash's coat! The undergrowth was so thick in places that he had to go behind us, against all rules of border collie "thinking".