This one is a bit of a retrospective update but thought it would be nice to record some of our summer of fun… also its 2020 I am in self isolation so have plenty of time on my hands.
We got the opportunity to go on Wellington fun ride after a friends horse went lame. I wasn't sure I could get transport last minute but by the powers of facebook managed to get a box and driver for the day. It was admittedly pricey, but seeing as I haven't taken Sofie out since 2015 and our new mantra is 'live for the day' we decided to book anyway.
A very swanky box arrived for us on the morning, air conditioning for Sofie and everything! I was very worried she wouldn't load. Our last box loading experience was that fateful evening that we collected her from Katies. Whilst we did have an excellent loading lesson from Micheal Peace (which I must blog about if I haven't already) it was for a trailer. I was up late the night before nervously watching Micheal Peace lessons on U tube.
In the end I needn't have worried. I used the tips from our last loading lesson and with a bit of gentle encouragement Sofie walked on calmly. She was clearly very happy with her 5* travel as she merrily ate all journey and arrived without sweating up.
Once we got to the start line she started getting excited. The ride is around the beautiful open fields on the Wellington Estate. Sof clearly thought these would be excellent for zooming. However she managed to keep enough cool to still listen to me, and looked rather impressive as she pranced past slower horses in a collected but extended trot. Several marshals commented on how lovely she was.
The ride organisers had removed the jumps this year, for fear of accidents stretching the already strained NHS during the pandemic. It was a bit of a shame, but to be honest the ground was hard and we were both so blooming delighted to be out it didn't matter. We aren't meant to jump anyway.
I was so pleased with Sof, she was super excited but still let others overtake her in canter, and pulled up from a flat out gallop when my hat silk fell off (due to speed). She let me jump off, retrieve hat silk, re mount and then back to galloping on que from me. She led past cows and other scary things calmly. I felt like I was riding a million dollar pony, in fact I knew I was riding a million dollar pony.
I did however feel bad for poor Christina who had to listen to me wax lyrical about Sof all the way round.
The only real hiccup was that the photo stations were not that clearly marked so we missed the best photo opps. I decided against trying to take and excitable Sof through water early in the ride as I feared I would end up swimming. I didn't know that there was a photographer at the river crossing and the pics they took were beautiful! Such a shame. We intentionally missed the photos at the main house because in order to get there we had to take the horses past the cows and low electric stock fencing. Bramble is quite quirky and afraid of cows so we decided it wasn't worth the risk.
On the box ride home Sofie was perfect again, had a little issue loading her but that was just because I was standing in her way and she was confused about where I wanted her to stand.
When we got home I was still grinning ear to ear. How I have missed going out and enjoying ponies, and what a fantastic pony I have to enjoy!
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