MizElz
Well-Known Member
my mum, brother and i have recently come back from a week in cornwall....whilst doing the normal things that people do on a typically english, very wet and cold summer holiday, we ventured to a local riding school to see if we could go riding on the beach (plenty of hills in wiltshire, but no sand
)
what followed was seriously funny......
we had asked to ride western, as none of us had ever done it before, so, allowing for our weights (we are all in the region of 11 - 14 stone) and the extra five stone of saddle, they brought out a shire for me, (5ft 2) a clydesdale x irish cob x shire x just-about-everything for my mum, (5ft 2) and a 14hh lightweight pony for my 14 year old, 5ft 9 tall brother. go figure!!!!! none of them could manage anything above a shuffle, so when we were asked if we wanted a canter, mum and i just looked at each other and laughed! they had not altered the stirrups at all either, (the leather was too stiff apparently) so we rode like jockeys, not ideal in a western saddle, where i thought your legs were meant to be virtually straight! and the saddle on the poor little pony was far too big, so every time i looked back at my brother, he was slipping over the edge of his pony! god, i was sooooooooooooooo relieved to see my own horse again when we got home! really makes you appreciate your own!
it was fun though, and we will do it again, just in an english saddle next time!!!!
..................
on a similar subject, what beaches do you guys tend to go to if you want to ride by the sea? i used to go to Brean, but a friend of mine nearly lost her horse there last year in the quicksand, so never again!
what followed was seriously funny......
we had asked to ride western, as none of us had ever done it before, so, allowing for our weights (we are all in the region of 11 - 14 stone) and the extra five stone of saddle, they brought out a shire for me, (5ft 2) a clydesdale x irish cob x shire x just-about-everything for my mum, (5ft 2) and a 14hh lightweight pony for my 14 year old, 5ft 9 tall brother. go figure!!!!! none of them could manage anything above a shuffle, so when we were asked if we wanted a canter, mum and i just looked at each other and laughed! they had not altered the stirrups at all either, (the leather was too stiff apparently) so we rode like jockeys, not ideal in a western saddle, where i thought your legs were meant to be virtually straight! and the saddle on the poor little pony was far too big, so every time i looked back at my brother, he was slipping over the edge of his pony! god, i was sooooooooooooooo relieved to see my own horse again when we got home! really makes you appreciate your own!
it was fun though, and we will do it again, just in an english saddle next time!!!!
..................
on a similar subject, what beaches do you guys tend to go to if you want to ride by the sea? i used to go to Brean, but a friend of mine nearly lost her horse there last year in the quicksand, so never again!