Chessington 29

29th August 2010

Chessington Equestrian Centre, Chessington

I got a call on Friday to ask if I could ride someone else on Sunday as Rowan was going away for pentathlon. That was fine, but I was pleased to note how disappointed I was that I wouldn't be seeing him for 3 whole days. Goodness, I sound like a lovesick teenager! So today I was on Ernie, who I've only ridden once before - on my first ever hack from Chessington, on the hour route. He was a very good boy, but quite lazy and I had to work hard to keep him walking on nicely. It was just myself and the escort today on Sol, who also had an attack of lazyitis. We did the same 2 hour route as the last few hacks, but no flat out gallops this time. We did have quite a few canters, but Sol was lazy enough that after 15 or so strides, he'd break back into trot and that would be that. So we had a lots of short canters, but nothing 'proper'. The lady on Sol did apologise for the lack of fast canters, but it's not all about going fast. The ride did make me appreciate how forward going Tom is though, and I'll try and stick to hacking him out in future (he's currently lame) when I ride a school horse. It was good practice to be on a horse that needed so much work though, as judging from how he is in the school, Ronan will be similar to how Ernie was. Oh, yes - apparently his name isn't Rowan, it's Ronan. I'm really not convinced I want to be the owner of a horse called Ronan - is it still unlucky to change names? I'm back on Ronan tomorrow, for the day ride, which as I understand it is basically a mounted pub crawl. I'm ridiculously excited about seeing him again, which usually means it'll all end in disappointment (and tears!). Though given how much my seat and legs are aching after 2 hours on Ernie today, it may end in tears (of pain) anyway! Oh well...I'll find out soon enough...