Yesterday was the first day that I did two lessons at horse riding Usually I do one 40 minute lesson at 11am on Wednesday morning But starting yesterday I did that lessonThen had a break and a cuppa And at 1pm had another lesson The first is in my groupWith Fintan and PatWho are so sound And great craicThey really look out for me As I am the baby of the group In that lesson We did a lot of trotting Sitting trot And a couple of canters A lot of the time I don't have to do a whole lot of work with Star As he is so conditioned to both the routine of the lesson And to Eilish's voiceIt's amazing how the horses respond to the tone and pitch of her voiceAfter a very enjoyable first lessonI made a cuppa And sat with Fintan for a wholeHe was going to get acupuncture done with the on site Chinese therapistSoonIt was time for my second lessonI pulled on my hat Got a leg up on to StarAnd we were off again Straight away It was much harder being the only rider in the arena Star had no one to follow So it was solely down to me to give him signals and directionsAnd being alone meant I didn't get a break at allWhereas you would with other riders in the arena Immediately Eilish had me trotting And Star felt much quicker and livelier It felt great So smooth and even Then we moved on to my canter I don't know why But I just couldn't do it You see To go from a trot in to a canter First you need to have a good steady trot Shorten your reins And at the corner sit in and canter This is giving the horse signals to canter But for some reason I couldn't sit in And so Star wouldn't canter And then The more I thought about it The more flustered I got Eilish was shouting different commands at me But it just wasn't happening Then Eventually After many many false starts It all came together And Star cantered beautifully for two whole laps It felt amazing Such a rush!It was so frustrating though Not being able to complete the transition correctly And even though Eilish said that Star was wrecked tired I still blamed myself But hey It's all learning And I'll just put it down to experience This is the thing Some days Everything goes right And some days Everything goes wrong And it's not always something that's in our control But anyway Look That's just the way it goes You have to take the rough with the smooth and that's it
So Now I am 35 I'm supposed to be a little older and a little wiserOlder?YeaWiser?Eh not sure about that one But I had a lovely birthday And I felt so special thanks to my friends and family Who are my life line Below are some pics from the day yesterday Some of my cards and gifts See you on the next post....
