fun fun fun... in the sun sun sun

I had the best fun this weekend and hardly rode myself at all :D

My folk's were away so I was in charge of the menagerie. It's not a great idea to be by yourself in that situation so a friend kindly agreed to come visit with his 9 year old daughter (G). I haven't seen the friend for 10 years and have only talked to the daughter on the phone - so it could have been a nightmare, but turned out to be a dream...

I was worried that we would have a repeat of recent weather - wind, rain, snow, in any combination. Instead the sun shone, and the wind only muttered slightly on Sunday. Based on past experience, I grabbed the chance of a fine Friday afternoon and went ahead with getting G on to Rosie and seeing how they get on. Rosie was keen to stay by me, and G was struggling with rising trot - so I bunged on the lead rein and we went around the grass field a couple of times. Rosie is much more forward going out of the school and G enjoyed it. One of the nice things was that I didn't need to suggest where she should go the whole time - she was making her own plans - which way to go, to weave in and out of some blocks etc.

G was keen to do everything she needed to get her Brownie badge for riding. The riding part was to walk, trot, stop, turn in an enclosed space without being led.

So on Saturday I figured it would be worth seeing how she got on with Dudley. He is a hand bigger but G is almost as tall as me (!) so I felt it would be fine. And it was. She was weaving in and out of blocks, walking, trotting, and then even had a canter on each rein. Big smiley grin from G and Duds appeared to be having a ball as well. There was a real rapport there. Duds didn't even take a look at the blocks with his normal OMG attitude, he just got on with it.

On Sunday we went to my sister's place to see lambs and calves, and G ended up going for a small hack on big sister's welsh B pony K. K doesn't get as much exercise as she really needs, and is prone to laminitis. She is ridden with grass reins as she can be a bit greedy. As we headed along a large grass field and tried a trot, K figured she would head home and veered off. I was already running along side so got left behind. I had briefed G beforehand to turn her if anything like that happened but K was just too strong. There was G and K, pelting off across the field at frantic trot - with me gasping behind thinking the worst - that I'd put G off riding for ever and her father would never forgive me for letting his child fall off !

Luckily G managed to halt her, and was fine, so off we went again. With some caution and me with a ready hand to grab the grass rein if K decided to make another dash for freedom...

Later that day, big sis appeared at my parent's on her highland - so that made pony no. 4 for G to ride, and then my folk's got home early enough for us to go play with Rosie all together.

I'm not sure who had the biggest grin - me or G :D

Oh, and I did manage to ride Fi - on Saturday. She had seemed a bit stiff so I was going to stick to walk and trot; she had been offering left lead canter on both reins on the lunge. But she actually offered a nice canter on both reins so I kept the session short and just aimed for good behaviour and a good state of mind :)