The Evils of Fear

I rode Bellamy again today - initially, I expressed reservations, and I was offered the choice of taking Madison instead, but I decided to give Bellamy another go, in an effort not to give in to fear.

As before, he was lovely for the first half of the lesson, and then suddenly decided to go crazy in the second half and take off with me round the school.  Also as before, there was never any danger of me falling off (since he has a wonderfully smooth canter gait), but it scared the crap out of me.

Eight months ago, I would have thought Bellamy was the best horse ever - now he terrifies me and I never want to ride him again.  It's so incredibly annoying!

Kerry suggested that I stick with the slowpokes for a while, but where's the fun in that?  If I'm stuck riding Madison forever, I might as well quit now.

HOYS

On a positive equestrian note, the Horse of the Year show was as fabulous as ever yesterday.

The youngsters didn't have a very good day of it - there were so many refusals, faults and eliminations in the 138cm show jumping that the commentators were worried nobdy would get a clear and there wouldn't even be a jump-off, but two did manage a clear in the end.

The Household Cavalry did their musical ride to Bon Jovi, Queen and The Rolling Stones, which was different, and very enjoyable, and the Pony Club Mounted Games are always good fun.

Best of all, though, was spending the day with my mum.