Out and about again but something different!!

Another activity today with the 50+ Adventure Club that I had organised. I am on the committee that run the club and all of us organise the activities that take place through the year and three of mine seem to come within six weeks of each other.

Today was the first and one of the most difficult to arrange - horse back riding. This is the fourth time that I have taken on this task, but only the second that we have actually ridden. The first time went off very well, the next time the horses went lame (probably when they heard that we were coming!), the next time the riding school had been sold and didn't take groups any more and finally today.

I surfed the net to find a riding school and eventually settled on Park View Riding School in Leicestershire and so it was that my companions and I arrived a little bit early at Anstey. We watched a Pony Club group have a lesson on the indoor ménage and two very small, diddy little girls in pink wellies on tiny ponies also having a lesson on the outdoor ménage. Such fun.

Then the first of our riders arrived - the novices. Quickly mounted by the very competent staff they went for a 30 minute hack -

and then back for a 30 minute lesson that they all seemed to enjoy.

Then it was our turn - those with some experience! Thank goodness for a mounting block as it made it easy to mount and then we went for a one hour hack which was great fun and we even managed to trot on a number of times. I felt like a sack of potatoes at the start of the trot but soon mastered it again and by the end was feeling very confident.

Not a bad photo from the back of a horse!!!

 I really enjoyed it and it is lovely to see the countryside from a different perspective.

I was on Kallie and she behaved beautifully or she could have been well ridden!!!!!

When we returned to the yard it was the turn of the experienced riders and I am sure that they galloped off into the sunset as they all looked so competent, even having all the riding gear!

A great afternoon and my friend and I are planning a return visit for a two hour hack to nearby Bradgate Park but that is another story for later in the year when the weather warms up.