Horse

Mechanical Horse Riding

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Yesterday I went to have a lesson on a mechanical horse.

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The riding club have organised several of these days but I have never before managed to get there so I was very excited to finally be able to have a go.  I was more than a little nervous as well though as I really didn’t know what to expect.

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I honestly do not know what I’m doing with my hands here. I can only assume I am describing something but I cannot remember what!

This particular mechanical horse is people powered so it is the rider using their weight correctly which makes the horse move in different gaits.  It’s incredibly clever and means that if you do something wrong you can really feel it because the horse stops what it should be doing.  At one point I was trying to get the horse to canter and instead managed to make it buck!

It was such a fun experience and extremely interesting too.  I learnt a lot about how to use my body more effectively in the saddle and got some useful pointers about my feet too – they always want to turn out!  Being sat on a mechanical horse rather than a real one means you can concentrate properly on how your body is working rather than on what the horse might be doing. I woud definitely recommend the experience if you get the chance.

Now I know how it should feel when I’m using it correctly – all I need to do is put it into practice when I’m riding the ponies!

Excursions

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Once again I have been off gallivanting without Galahad to compete for the riding club.  This time I was taking part in an eventer’s challenge – a round of show jumps immediately followed by a round of cross country fences.

I have only done a few cross country courses over the past couple of years and those were on Galahad so the jumps were very little.  I probably haven’t jumped a big round of cross country fences for about ten years so I was more than a little apprehensive.

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The horse felt quite tight and wound up underneath me and we had a couple of argumentative moments in the warm up ring which did not help my confidence.  However, I am nothing if not determined and we made our way into the ring.

Of course, we had to have a very good look at all of the scary tents and vans along the edge but once we were past those I asked for a canter and he shot off at top speed.  I felt like I had no brakes at all but we had gone through the start so I could hardly turn away from the first fence to settle him before we began.  I just had to commit to the jump and hope for the best.

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Look at his tail fly!

Thankfully once we were over the fence he started listening to me and we finished the show jumps at a much more respectable speed.  In fact, it would have been better if we had gone a bit faster but I was just grateful I wasn’t being carted away!

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Show jumping immediately followed by cross country means cross country colours all the time – no show jackets!

We finished the show jumping with no penalties and moved on to the cross country fences.  Suddenly we found our rhythm and the scary, solid fences flowed beautifully.  We had an unfortunate stop at one of them – the team had noticed that several people were having trouble with horses ducking out to the left at that particular fence and I think I overcompensated and sent him the other way – but he jumped beautifully and I found myself enjoying it more than the show jumping.

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Professional photographs are from Dorset Photo Event

We even managed to clear the tricky joker at the end of the course – a show jumping gate 10cm higher than the rest of the fences.  I had the most wonderful day and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  It is so good to be part of the team again!

Gadding Without Galahad

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My riding of the ponies has been a bit curtailed recently as I had the opportunity to ride on my riding club’s showjumping team last weekend and I had no hesitation in taking it.  Obviously the jumps are too high for Galahad – hence the riding of other horses.  Before we had the ponies I used to ride so many different horses in my lessons and it really did make me a better rider – I was reasonably confident sitting on anything.  These days I am much more nervous and it feels like it takes me longer to get to know new horses – just because I have got so used to the ponies’ way of going.  These couple of weeks have really brought home to me how much I have lost and I am determined to keep riding other horses.

It has been several years since I jumped proper grown-up sized jumps and even longer since I competed for the riding club so I was somewhat nervous but very, very excited.  We had a much earlier start than Galahad and I are used to – we do stick to the local shows after all – and I am certainly not used to getting the horses ready in the dark.  We also had an interesting journey as the lorry broke down and we arrived as the class was starting.

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I didn’t have my usual support crew with me so thank you to Wayne for taking some brilliant photographs!

Of course, that meant we could not walk the course but we are nothing if not determined and it certainly wasn’t the first time I have jumped without a course walk.  I overshot one turn slightly but overall we got round pretty well with just one pole down.

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We did manage to walk the course for the second round but annoyingly we still had a pole down and time faults as well – which meant we were the discard score for that round.  I was still so proud of us though – I had only ridden Murphy a few times and we were working well together.  I learnt so much too which I can hopefully use another time.

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In the end our team came third overall and second of the qualifiers.  We actually had the same score as the qualifying team but were slightly slower – which makes that pole and time faults extra frustrating!

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I had the most amazing day though and am very much hoping that I get to do it again soon.

Horse Drawn Boating

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Last week I went for a trip on a horse drawn barge – one of only four left in the country.  It was a wonderfully relaxing trip and the autumn colours were glorious.

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The horse was a beautiful four year old part bred Comtois called Teddy.  He only started working at the beginning of the year and had the summer off as it was too busy for him then.  He just came back into work this month but you wouldn’t know it – he behaved very well indeed.

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He was very keen on all the polos he was given at our half way stop.  I think he must have eaten a couple of packets!

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It was fantastic to be able to travel on a proper horse drawn canal boat.  It was incredibly peaceful, especially when everyone was quiet for a couple of minutes.  A perfect way to spend the afternoon.