Sunday 3 April 2011

First Weekend back Pony Trekking

After what seems like a long winter the pony trekking season has finally started.  I celebrated with a marathon weekend of two full day treks.  Although it was actually only four hours the first day and four and a half the second day, it felt like a lot after not getting on a horse for over a month.  I was riding Black Sam again this weekend but am hoping to try out some new horses this year now the season is starting again.

On Saturday, there were two half day treks so we went up the Grange and onto the mountain which was nice because didn't manage to get up the top over the winter.  The views never fail to amaze me and I feel very lucky to ride in such a beautiful place.  Having become such a regular, I've been asked to close the gates as I always seem to end up at the back of the trek, my favourite place.  I didn't get off to the best start, by completely forgetting to keep my hands down when I pulled him to a stop just before we left the yard and got a nagging reminder to look like I actually knew how to ride if I was going to be helping on the trek.  I had varying degrees of success with the gates in the morning and ended up dismounting quite a few times rather than risking leaning to far over and falling off.  By the afternoon, I was starting to get the hang of it and getting to know the which gates shut easily and which had required a certain knack.  I managed to shut virtually all of them on horse back that time.  We also had a couple of canters which was nice as there was limited opportunity over the winter, as the ground was a bit hard and we spent a lot of time on the road.  It is lovely at the moment up there now that Spring has well and truly arrived and there are cute little lambs everywhere and daffodils and other flowers starting to appear too.

Having stayed over at the farm last night, it was an early start to get all the horses fed and those who were riding tacked up before the other trekkers arrived.  There must have been twenty horses coming in for food this morning, now that most have arrived back from their winter holidays.  Today, I did a full day trek up to the Queens Head.  I made a bit of a faff of the first few gates.  I think I need to have a think about how to approach them before I get to them so that I can concentrate on controlling the horse instead of having to experiment with the best way to approach each gate and confusing the poor horse who hasnt got a clue what I want him to do because I wasn't sure myself.  After a slow start with one beginner rider who struggled a little in the morning, we made fairly slow progress.  The horses are a bit slower than at the end of the season as they need to get their fitness back after their long winter holiday. Whilst the beginner went on a head with the trek leader, her friend and I managed managed a lovely long fast canter before lunch.  The four of us finally arrived at the pub for lunch at 1.30 and had a quick sandwich and drink before heading back.  The ground is still quite boggy in places but we managed another short canter before the day was out (even the beginner managed to join in this time).  Finally, we got back to the stables at about 4.30 where I had to untack quickly and rush home to collect my kids and open my mothers day card.  Roll on next Saturday, another day's pony trekking already booked.