Chessington 12

10th July 2010

Chessington Equestrian Centre, Chessington

My first weekend trip to Chessington, and I'd booked a 2 hour hack. I was told on Thursday that I'd be on Mikey again, and I wasn't particularly looking forward to it, having struggled to get him going forward in my (short) lesson. I needn't have worried - if anything, I had the opposite problem, as when we were at the back in canter (first half of the ride) he was pulling and trying to race ahead the whole time! There was another client on Marley, and Denise, a livery, was escorting us on her own Toby. As Mikey was tacked up, he again got antsy and pulled back to break the baler twine. That'll be two out of two then. I made sure to stay well away from his head to avoid winding him up further. I was asked to stay at the back of the ride, as Mikey had a tendency to kick, and for the first part of the ride I must confess to being a little despondent. It was baking hot (early afternoon on the hottest day of the year!) and the pace just wasn't quick enough for me. I have a thing about getting horses to walk out actively, but being stuck behind Marley (she was littler) meant either repeatedly halting him and walking on, or just slowing him to a plod. The route was again made up of a lot of residential roads, but also a lot of shady bridle paths and wooded areas. The ground was fairly hard, but we managed to get quite a few trots and canters in. We were still at the back, and certainly by the time we reached Esher Common (?) Mikey was getting stronger and stronger, and I was having to sit right back and check him all the time to stop him going up Marley's backside. Given the paths were quite twisty and overgrown, and I was having to duck to avoid low branches, it wasn't always the most enjoyable position to be in. On the way back though, I'd overtaken Marley crossing a road, and said I'd stop to let her past, but Denise said I'd be fine ahead of her now. This is where the ride really changed for me, as poor Marley now keep getting left behind and having to trot to catch up, but I had a lovely active walk going and got to chat to Denise a bit. When we had another few canters, I was still in the middle and Mikey was a lot easier to hold. I'd never got to the stage where I felt I was in danger of losing control of him, but as he'd been getting stronger I thought it might have come to that. Denise mentioned that she hadn't taken us to Epsom Common as he'd been very strong there last week. Relief... We got back almost dead on two hours, and next time I must remember to wear a Garmin so that I can record the distance and paces etc (I'm a running geek) and also so that I can see the route and learn my way around the area. I took the opportunity of not being in a hurry to hang around at the yard for a while afterwards and ended up in a conversation with Denise and Leon about sharing - Denise originally shared her horse with CEC until she bought him. The ones available at the moment are on the senstive side for my current abilities, and most of the big school horses get used too much to cut 3 days of lessons out. But funnily enough, Mikey isn't used much, and it may be possible to share him. I'm not convinced, as I'm wary of him being head shy and scared to handle him at the moment, plus in the school he was a sloth and out of it he pulled, but I'm thinking it may just be a great opportunity. I biked home at the end of the day, and at the crossroads 50 yards from my house, there had been an accident and were ambulances and loads of police cars. A pedestrian had been hit on the crossing outside the tube station, and seemed in a bad way. It made me realise that there are risks in everything, even crossing the road, and that we should grab opportunities when we get them. I'm riding Mikey in my lesson on Thursday  and assuming it's not awful, and they're definitely happy for me to share him, I think I will.