Recent Riding Adventures

Trevor, originally uploaded by Aloysius_Flyte.

This is Trevor - he's 16.2hh (ie 5ft 6 at the withers) but he's built like a pony - huge head and body, little legs. More about him later...

Center Parcs:
My first ride at Center Parcs was on a little, fat, grey pony called Jade. When we got to the first canter stretch, she shot off like a rocket, and then gradually got slower and slower until she dropped back into trot again. But, at the next canter stretch, she'd go off like a rocket again, and so it went on. When we got back to the stables, the manager asked me how it had gone and I said it was fine but asked if I could ride a different horse the next day. And so she introduced me to Trevor - apparently, not many of the people who ride there are good enough to handle him so he doesn't get much exercise. I quickly volunteered to take him out the next day.

Trevor was huge - as tall as me and so wide he needed a special saddle that shifted from side to side as he moved. When I mounted, all I could see in front of me was hair. Riding Trevor was really weird, because he felt just like a pony, except that I was six feet off the ground. He looked and felt as if he wouldn't be able to go very fast but, boy, was that a wrong assumption! Trevor spent most of the ride with his head on top of the lead horse's bottom - luckily she didn't seem to mind that much because there was no way I could get him to slow down. Then on a slightly wider stretch, he gave an almighty buck that nearly unseated me, and we were off - past the lead horse and away into the hills. I would have tried turning him in a circle, but there were dense trees on one side and a nicely ploughed field on the other, so I just went with it and eventually he stopped. It was tremendous fun, but I suggested they get a stronger bit for Trevor in future.

Trent Park:
The weekend after, I got Flossie for my lesson and it was lovely to ride her again. She's a wonderful horse, and I really enjoyed a lesson where I didn't have to fight to get into trot and canter. The only problem with Flossie is that she tends to tense up at the end of lessons, so when we were lengthening the reins in trot to get the horses to stretch and slow down, Flossie took it as an invitation to canter instead. Very nice change from Herbie, though.

Windsor Great Park:
Not the smoothest of hacks, with Kat's horse going lame near the start and one of the other riders doing his back in part way round. I was positively frozen after we'd stood around for nearly an hour, waiting for the truck to bring Kat to meet us, but eventually we managed to get some decent riding in.

However, I seem to be having a lot of trouble lately with horses going faster than their supposed to, and Kiara took the biscuit on that front, towards the end of the ride. She'd been wonderful all the way round, hardly fighting me at all, and cantering so sedately I was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with her. On the last canter stretch, though, she picked her moment, and shot off into the lead at a flat out gallop. I swear I have never travelled so fast on a horse in my life - though she did stop when I asked her to.

Overall, the ride helped me reach a difficult decision. When Kiara was cantering sedately behind everyone else, it was boring. When she picked up the pace a little and started fighting me, it was frustrating and painful. And when she took off at a gallop, it was the most exhilerating moment in recent memory - but it was also extremely dangerous and could have caused other people to be injured. And all I wanted was to do it again.

So, I apologise in advance if this causes transport problems for everyone else, but I'm not going to ride in Windsor again.

Trent Park:
Today, I got Joe. I love Joe. He's such a great horse. The best thing about Joe is that his gear box is very reliable. Once you tell him which gait you want him in, he will stay in the gait until you tell him to do something else. So, in both trot and canter, you don't have to focus on keeping him moving - he'll just keep going at the same speed until you tell him to stop. It's brilliant. As usual, we spent most of today's lesson trotting without stirrups and it was so nice not to have to worry about keeping the horse going - I had time and opportunity to work on my position and steering.

The only problem with Joe is that he tends to drop his head into the contact, so there's constant pressure on the end of the reins, and his head does get heavy after a while, so I expect my shoulders will be aching tomorrow. Still, like Flossie, an extremely welcome change from Herbie!