Clip clop

I had seen mummy put on her riding trousers and boots earlier this week - she looked good as she left to go horse riding with her friend and left daddy to bath and put us to bed. 

I was now the proud owner of a pink riding hat and a pair of riding trousers and today I woke with excitement - I was going to have a pony riding lesson and could not wait.  Rivan and I practiced being ponies - running up and down the corridor and before I knew it mum was calling us to get in the car.  I wanted to hold my hat and my gloves so that I did not loose them, our first stop was the nearby mill to get some more flour for us to make bread and pizza and the nice man gave mum some special flour with herbs and sun dried tomatoes already in - "it makes great pizza" he told mum - try it for free and let me know if you like it. 

We soon arrived at the riding school and I was first out of the car with Rivan following behind and mum telling us to wait for her.  We helped get the ponies ready - brushing them and making them look pretty - we even put some daisies in their bridle.  There were 8 ponies to get ready in total and it was a bit confusing to know which saddle and bridle belonged to whom, but soon enough they were all ready and taking the opportunity to grab a quick snack of the luscious green grass before they had to do some work.  With Rivan safely in the rucksack on mum's back the instructor put me onto my pony - a little brown Shetland pony called "hip hop" - she was just the right size for me and we all headed off into the arena to start our class.

                       

I have only ever ridden a couple of times before so this was all quite new and a little bit scary for me - I knew that I would enjoy it but just felt a little unsure of the unknown.  A girl from the riding school took "hip hop" from mum and led me into the arena to start our class with all the other ponies.  We walked round several times and then we had to turn ourselves round to face backwards - I hope that this is not how mum rides! 

 We played some games collecting rings and putting them on posts at the other end of the arena and then the teacher wanted us to go faster - I had never done this before and got a little scared - I tried to hold back the tears but they welled up in my eyes…..  Sophie ( a friends mum) came over to check I was OK and after explaining that I did not want to go fast everything was fine and we just walked after that.  The class was over so quickly and I can't wait for the next one.  We took our ponies back to their enclosure and took off their saddle and bridle, we then put ponies back so they could eat some hay.  Mum had to pay and then we headed home - Rivan having stayed awake all morning fell asleep within minutes of getting in the car and I could have slept too but mum kept asking lots of questions so I could not sleep - was this on purpose?  What a lovely Saturday - thank you mum and dad!