Day Four

Humphries and Sky

Things seemed to have settled down in the herd today. There was no objection from the other horses when I took Humphries in from the field. I took him into the stable and gave him a perfunctory groom, and he was very good. Then I wormed him and he couldn't have been better. Finally I tacked him up. I was rather inept, as it has been a long time since I tacked up, but he tolerated me and with some help with Michele I got the job done.

The mounting block

I put on my hard hat and gloves and led Humphries out to the mounting block. Michele held him while I tried to get on. It was a little low, so we improvised one out of chopped wood near the arena. With Michele's patience and eventually Madeline and my mother's help, I tried for two hours but, disappointingly, didn't succeed.

Me, tired and disappointed

I untacked Humphries and led him back to the field where, once again, he wandered off without any hassle from the horses. Then I led Cori from one stable into the other with the intention of grooming him and tacking him up for Michele, who was going to ride him. However, he played up a lot and wouldn't lead into the stable. He was preoccupied with getting back to the horses in the field and he was wound up. In the past I would have got scared and angry, but I realised that Cori was anxious, so I kept my cool and got him into the stable. Michele took him into the arena then to do some work with him to calm him down and it was going well, until it started to rain heavily, so she left him back out to the field (not with the horses) and we cleaned out the stables and went home.

Ruffles the peacock

The Rider

Name: Inkpot

Age: 26

Started Riding: 1998

Riding Level: Novice

Favourite Discipline: Dressage

Horse: Cori

Inspired by: Klaus Hempfling, Monty Roberts, Carl Hester, Mary King, Heather Moffat, Michael Pierce and my sister Michele

I have loved horses all my life. I started riding in 1998, but due to a series of unfortunate events, I have not ridden since August 2000. I have a beautiful piebald gelding called Cori, but to help me get over my nerves and get back in the saddle, I am hiring the pony I learnt to ride on for the summer. I hope to chronicle my riding successes and failures (hopefully not too many of those) on this blog in both pictorial and written form.