Back in the saddle again

In November I won a competition on twitter for a riding lesson at Markree riding stables. It’s almost 30 years since I was on a horse so although I used to go on a weekly basis I’m more than a little rusty.

So I was a bit apprehensive today when I set off for my lesson. Lucy came along with me too as she used to go riding when she was younger. Caroline was there to greet us and Niamh showed us around the stables and introduced us to some of the beautiful horses.

The stables were a hive of activity, there was a great atmosphere about the place and everyone was really friendly.

This is Silver which was the horse I was riding, he was very big. I thought I was going to need a crane to lift me up but there was a step so it wasn’t too bad. I felt really sorry for him having to lug me around.

We were given hats, boots and crops to borrow and we went to join the other people having a lesson.

Caroline is a brilliant teacher, she was able to tell us where we were going wrong and how to correct things. There is so much to learn and to take in.

We really enjoyed the lesson. I managed to remember how to do the rising trot and I also managed to stand up for a few seconds. I’m not very good at ‘steering’ the horse though and I’m dreadful at the sitting trot, my backside doesn’t want to stay in the saddle…maybe next time I should bring super glue.

When Silver started to canter this is what I looked like! Or what I imagine I looked like. This is a drawing by Thelwell. I did the wrong thing and let out a little scream which Silver thought meant carry on so he did. Luckily I managed not to slide off although it was close!

After the lesson Caroline let us go outside with the horses to get some photos so that was good.

It was then time to dismount, which was fine until we tried to walk. I was like John  Wayne! My legs were like lead, goodness knows if I’ll be able to walk tomorrow.

All in all we had a really brilliant time. I felt slightly motion sick after the lesson. I’ve no idea if that’s normal! Mind you I can’t even play computer games because of it, next time I’ll have to take a kwell 😉 I would recommend Markree Riding Stables to everyone. It’s really well run, the people are great and the horses are lovely.