Hi-ho, Mouse!? Away!

Back in April I took advantage of a bank holiday weekend to get one of the challenges crossed of the list – I remembered to post some photos on Facebook but neglected to actual get the bog post sorted. So, this is a bit on the late side but this is how it went…………

I’d actually been looking forward to completing this one and had started to make plans to do it last year either in the lakes or up near Alnwick on the north east coast. When I realised I would have time (and more importantly good weather) in April I crossed the lakes off as being a bit too far to go for an hours riding so I confined the options to closer to home.

Looking about – the local riding schools specialise in training in a yard on a rope – just going around in circles. I’m sure the schools know what they’re doing and this probably is the best way to learn but I was really just after a taster session and wanted to go for a trek (preferably with some nice countryside to view – even if it might be in a bit of a blur depending upon the friskiness of the horse involved!).

A lot of phone calls and emails over the space of a week narrowed my search down to one option – Sinderhope stables near Allendale on the Northumberland Moors  -grew up not far away and the countryside on a nice day is breath taking. The woman on the phone sounded very nice and was confident they’d be able to find a riding hat to fit my big head.

Despite growing up about 20 miles away – finding the place took some doing due to my legendary navigation skills but with 10 minutes to spare before the trek was due to start I arrived.

Sinderhope riding school

As I pulled up in the car I did start to worry a bit. Horses are rather big creatures and falling off one would be a long way down – what if my horse suddenly took a dislike to me and decided it would be better off without some lump sat on top of it? Or decided the other side of the valley looked more appealing and set off at gallop? I was reminded of a passage I read in a Terry Pratchet novel (going Postal) a little while ago………..

“Hobson had tried Boris as a racehorse and he would have been a very good one were it not for his unbreakable habit, at the off, of attacking the horse next to him and jumping the railings at the first bend. Mist clapped one hand on to his hat, wedged his toes into the belly band and hung onto the reins as broadway all at once, carts and people blurring past, his eyeballs pressing into his head……. Hobson was right, you couldn’t steer him with a mallet, but at least he was heading in the right direction, which was away from his stable. Boris didn’t want to spend the days kicking bricks out of his stable wall while waiting to throw the next bumptious idiot – he wanted to bite the horizon. He wanted to run.” Copyright Terry and lynn Pratchet, 2004 – I’m hoping they don’t mind me borrowing this small bit of text.

The office for the school was in a farmhouse kitchen (with a cardboard box full of new-born lambs in the centre of the room. The woman who ran the school was very nice found me a helmet and assured me that they had just the right horse for a beginner – he was a big thing but as docile as could be, didn’t like being at the front and was called Mouse.

10 minutes later I was sat ontop of mouse in a group that included 3 other beginners and two guides – both called Emma I think. As I’d been told Mouse was a gentle giant and was in no mood to throw me off or make a dash for it – in fact he seemed very happy to have his nose 6 inches from the horse in fronts bum. It tried a bit of steering but Mouse clearly though he knew better about where we were going and ignored me.

Mouse - a very big horse!

We set off at a sedate pace along a stretch of road for about 20 minutes and then the guides decided we could try trotting for a bit – this was rather uncomfortable for me! The guide told me to bounce on the sadle and try and time it with Mouse’s movements, what actually happened is no matter what I did we stayed perfectly out of phase and I repeatedly hit the saddle with my bits! Thankfully we got off the road and settle down to a walk and I could spend the remainder of the trek enjoying the scenery – chatting to my fellow learners and Mouse even allowed me to do a bit of steering.

View from on top of Mouse - once we'd stopped trotting!

We got back to the stables after an hour and I was surprised that I didn’t feel to sore. I got of Mouse, helped get him into a jacket and gave him a couple of treats, I was rewarded for this by being given a bit of a lick.

All in all I’d rate horse riding as one of the most fun challenges I’ve completed and recommend it to anyone. I hope I’ll try it again sometime but I’d better keep going with the rest of the challenges first J.

 

Poetry Please

Remembering a conversation with Laura from last weekend suddenly got me worrying, its been 3 months since my last post! Not only does this mean that I'm not crossing anymore challenges off the list having effectively stalled on this whole enterprise - but I'm actually in danger of going backwards! One of the challenges that I was busy patting myself on the back for at the end of last year was writing this blog about my progress, but technically it's only completed when everything is done if I don't keep it up then I'm back down to 6 rather than 7 challenges sorted.

To be fair I have been making some progress - just not blogging about it. I've been busy on the learning a craft challenge and hope to have some pictures of my finished handiwork to post here in the next month. I've also done the horse riding challenge but never got around to writing the post, my practising with the uke is still not hitting the high notes but I feel I have made some progress.

However, it's twenty past eleven on a school night, I've just got in from the cinema and I'm not quite up to writing about any of the above - but I need to get something down. A flash of inspiration on the number one bus on the way home made me think about writing a short poem - alas no further inspiration was forthcoming about what the poem should be about. I did read an article on the bbc website about a poem with no words (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-27680904) but that would be cheating - this did get me on to thinking about a poem I was introduced to by an old friend and fellow blogger a few years back that sums my situation up quite well................

The Old Sailorby A.A. Milne

There was once an old sailor my grandfather knew
Who had so many things which he wanted to do
That, whenever he thought it was time to begin,
He couldn't because of the state he was in.

He was shipwrecked, and lived on a island for weeks,
And he wanted a hat, and he wanted some breeks;
And he wanted some nets, or a line and some hooks
For the turtles and things which you read of in books.

And, thinking of this, he remembered a thing
Which he wanted (for water) and that was a spring;
And he thought that to talk to he'd look for, and keep
(If he found it) a goat, or some chickens and sheep.

Then, because of the weather, he wanted a hut
With a door (to come in by) which opened and shut
(With a jerk, which was useful if snakes were about),
And a very strong lock to keep savages out.

He began on the fish-hooks, and when he'd begun
He decided he couldn't because of the sun.
So he knew what he ought to begin with, and that
Was to find, or to make, a large sun-stopping hat.

He was making the hat with some leaves from a tree,
When he thought, "I'm as hot as a body can be,
And I've nothing to take for my terrible thirst;
So I'll look for a spring, and I'll look for it first."
Then he thought as he started, "Oh, dear and oh, dear!
I'll be lonely tomorrow with nobody here!"
So he made in his note-book a couple of notes:
"I must first find some chickens" and "No, I mean goats."

He had just seen a goat (which he knew by the shape)
When he thought, "But I must have boat for escape.
But a boat means a sail, which means needles and thread;
So I'd better sit down and make needles instead."

He began on a needle, but thought as he worked,
That, if this was an island where savages lurked,
Sitting safe in his hut he'd have nothing to fear,
Whereas now they might suddenly breathe in his ear!

So he thought of his hut ... and he thought of his boat,
And his hat and his breeks, and his chickens and goat,
And the hooks (for his food) and the spring (for his thirst) ...
But he never could think which he ought to do first.

And so in the end he did nothing at all,
But basked on the shingle wrapped up in a shawl.
And I think it was dreadful the way he behaved -
He did nothing but bask until he was saved!

smart bloke that Alan Milne - time to get a bit more organised and getting some more of these challenges :-)

p.s. if you want to listen tto more authoritative ramblings about poetry then I can highly recommend poetry please on Radio 4 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qp7q - it's been the source of most of my research thus far.

p.p.s. if you want to read some of the blog by the friend that introduced me to the above poem check out the entry from March 7th 2006 at this link - http://drjosadventures.blogspot.co.uk/2006_03_01_archive.html