We have a big ride this morning and a mixed one at that. Janine has arrived with her chocolate cake from when she fell off Maverick. Veronica and Jess leave this morning. Cheryl however, has lost her voice and delegates her duties to Don and me. Louisa has had dreadful asthma all night and is out of action. Don, Debbie, Janine and I trek off to the stables. I am tasked with introducing the riders to all the horses. Don is tasked with selecting horses for the riders. Janine and Debs help tack up etc. We head out. We have two German ladies with us, who are on Buckle and Midnight. I am riding Gunstone. Debs is on Zeus. Don leads the canter up the cliffs and the German ladies decide to swap horses as the one on Midnight is battling to get him going. The other German mounts Midnight and rides him perfectly. Debs is tail end Charlie and Janine is in the middle of the ride. We head for the beach and Janine holds back with a client on Alex. I am leading the canter off, with Buckle and Midnight behind me, followed by Robin and Nsync and the rest. As we get the canter going, I hear Robins’ rider shouting “Stop Robin, Stop!” I halt the canter and look behind me. I see a crumpled back pack on the beach – Wait, it’s NOT a back pack – It’s the German lady off Buckle. “Vot is she doing down dare, I am Vondering?”We need to think out of the box. The client is in a state of shock and has hurt her ankle. Don gets those who still want to canter, on the move. We get Debs to keep the group of riders who do not want to canter, together. We have beach goers holding the three horses whilst I am trying to assist the beached Chairman and her Chairman friend. We get two young men come and offer to take the shocked German back to the Hotel. We now head home and get back just in time to tack up for the afternoon ride. We are waiting to feed. I open the gates of the stables to let the horses in to feed, and am grateful for the gate, which Buckle kicks when trying to kick out at me. I kick Buckle back! It is the only language they know. It is better to react to the horses in a way they understand, versus raising your hands to them.
We are pleased as we have an experienced rider coming and can clearly enjoy our afternoon outing after the mishap of this morning. I have decided to take Bliss! The client is taking Maverick. We canter up the hill to the cliffs. I am not enjoying my ride on Bliss, who insists in shaking his head or going farming. On the way down to the beach, the client offers to swap horses with me. I now ride Maverick, a 4 year old, recently backed. He is a good ride and we have a good canter on the beach. I watch the client on Bliss, who now gets competitive with Dons’ horse on the canter back, and in mid canter, Bliss strikes to kick out. Shoo, I am glad I was not on Bliss. Two minutes later, Midnight kicks out at Maverick and I, minding our own business. We head home. We all sit around together in the kitchen, in hysterics, going through the days events.
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