We started at Pickwick Fun Ride. This was a beautiful ride, the humans loved the scenery and we had to keep stopping so photographs could be taken of the view - to be fair to the humans it was really lovely countryside and very varied. One minute we were hacking through some beautiful woods with a lovely lake in the dell and then we were roaming across fabulous valleys that allowed me to start teaching Lara racing. Now for a 14.2hh pony its quiet hard to keep ahead of my nearly 17hh friend - but I can promise you fellow Dales ponies, you would have been impressed with my turn of speed. I was hot on her heels.
We did quiet a bit of galloping but by the time we met the photographer, David Betteridge http://www.dhbphotography.co.uk/ we were starting to chill out. I know humans say that their owners look like their dogs but from the picture below I would say our humans are well suited to their steeds too! Tall and elegant and short and dumpy (Mum please read compact and powerful - I love you just the way you are, but if you do want to loose some weight, you won't hear me complaining)!
The funniest thing on this ride though was Lara jumping an invisible 3ft log. We had been cantering along a field and the humans kept thinking we might jump the smallest little dips in the ground, which we didn't and then just as they started to relax I cantered up a little hollow, it was a very shallow dip, nothing there at all - however Lara thought otherwise and just took the most massive leap over the whole dip. We then nearly lost both our riders because they were laughing so much they lost their balance and nearly came off. After that we managed one more super fast galloping race before we came to the end of a lovely ride. Thank you Avon Vale Hunt, we will be back next year.
Our next trip out was to Oaksey and we started out as a gang of five ponies and their humans. My friend Lara again with Aunty Trish. Caroline on Phoenix (who I have been on a fun ride with before). Aunty Lynda was riding Cinders (my black cob friend who I like lots) and then Fiona on her speedy mount, who was so fast it was hard to catch her name but I think it was Nina. Nina led the way and we were all soon speeding along the tracks, this was going to be hard work, as it was a hot day. Cinders and I decided to keep to the back of the field but Mum made me jump while Cinders ins't allowed, she has poorly legs and needs to take care as jumping can hurt them.
So I made sure my litttle legs did their best to keep up with the racehorse who was jumping everything, so I did my best to jump everything too - well the jumps Mum liked the look of anyway. She made sure I jumped the wall next to the photographer - nice picture, thank you Mr Photographer.
After that Cinders and I thought better of trying to keep up with the hunting pace being set and decided to chill and let the others gallop on while our humans chatted and admired the views. We returned with fresh legs and smiles on our faces and met up with the rest of the gang at the boxes on wheels car park where we got treats and cake! Thank you Vale of the White Horse Hunt for organising such a good ride.
As if two fun rides were not enough this month, last weekend Lara and I went to mix with the animal stars of CountryFile on the fun ride Adam Henson has at his Cotswold Farm Park. Of course being a rare breed I felt right at home. This was a special outing and Mum took me over to Lara's house as I was allowed to travel in her huge lorry. It meant climbing up a very steep ramp but I managed that and loved travelling with my friend Lara - I just ignored her grumpy faces, it was too exciting being up high in a lorry.
This was a great fun ride, Mum had been before as had Lara and Aunty Trish but it was all new to me. We got to paddle in the river, which was great fun.
They had lots of lovely jumps of all shapes and sizes and we jumped quite a few. Yes I know Mum is riding me in a dressage saddle but we have the saddle on trial at the moment and I really like it. It's much more comfortable, its a Heather Moffatt saddle and I surprised Mum as I started to drag her into some of the jumps, which I haven't done in a while, so she is hoping that I will go back to enjoying jumping now I have a saddle I like. Benji dog came with us and while he would have loved to come with us he had to stay and guard the lorry with Aunty Alison who had been kind enough to drive us all the way to the ride. He looks a bit bored here!
We had a great day and got some lovely rosettes at the end of our ride so we posed to show them off.
A special thank you to Lara and Aunty Trish for keeping us company on our rides and I hope we can do some more soon. This wish extends to all my pony friends, I love exploring new countryside.
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