A Nice Little Lead Rein Ride for the kids

I was feeling very frustrated this weekend that due to the social diary of my eldest son and his requirement for me to play taxi, I wouldn't be able to leave them with their dad for the weekend whilst I went pony trekking.  So decided that whilst the oldest was away at Beaver Scout camp, I would take my youngest son along with his godmother and her daughter up to Trevelog Trekking instead.  Obviously, the next best thing to going trekking myself.

Black Sam in the stable, ready to go out for a ride.

We had a lovely morning despite my friend being rather nervous about horses, she soon relaxed.  After arriving at the farm, the kids spent a little bit of time fussing around the dogs before we got hats on them.  We borrowed Black Sam, one of my favourite bombproof ponies at the trekking centre who has a lovely gentle nature and is perfect for the kids.

We headed out of the farm and down the lane for about ten minutes before we realised the little sheepdog puppy from the farm had followed us.  He was very cute but we hadnt noticed him until he shot in front of us under the gate into a field of sheep to practice his herding skills.  Not a good idea if the sheep don't belong to you, as a farmer finding a strange dog chasing his sheep may well shoot it.  As I was leading the horse, I said to my friend "Quick, you better get over the gate and catch him."  The kids and I had much merriment watching her chase the little puppy round the field with us shouting "You need to run faster than that".  Having finally caught up with him, my friend carried the puppy out of the field and we took a quick detour back to the farm.  Unfortunately, the puppy had tired himself out and insisted on being carried back.



Ellie riding Black Sam with me and Laurence leading him.



Despite being in the middle of October,with not particularly good weather yesterday, we had a lovely warm sunny day which was fantastic.  The kids,had two good ten minute stints each before I decided to have a little ride on the way back (just in case, the horse spooked with one of the kids on his back as we passed the goat shed on the way back - well that was my excuse anyway.)    Both kids had a wonderful time and were keen to come back another day.  My son looked so cute, he is so small his feet didnt even reach the stirrups so he had them slipped into the leathers feet resting on the stirrups. His friend enjoyed trying to put into practice what she had learnt in the pony party she went to a few weeks ago.  All in all, a lovely morning for them and I think both kids are converts to pony trekking, even if they need to wait a few years to be old enough for a proper trek.

Although only a short ride, had a little trot and Sam was very biddable.  Whilst it was just a fifteen minute ride along the road, it was really nice as it was the first time I had ridden a horse on my own, totally unsupervised.  And it did stop be feeling fed up for not having been horseriding this week.

Back at the farm, Black Sam hadn't actually broken into a sweat.  He is used to much harder work.  However, we thought he deserved a little brush down after his efforts and the kids had great fun grooming him.  After a quick look at the foal and a pet of the goats, we headed off to grab some lunch at the burger van in the valley which does delicious burgers produced from a local farm which don't even deserve the same name as the food McDonalds serve.  Finally, time to go and fetch my oldest son, who wasn't bothered to have missed out because he is not so keen on horses.