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.