The super-ness continues! It really has been an excellent week. Today: I went on a bit of an impromptu hack down the railway tracks and round Arrandene Open Space with Claire, her daughter Gilly and Pamela. Pamela is a bit of a nervous rider too so we often hack together and just walk and trot.

Dino was superb on the railway tracks. Gilly was in front on a pony that’s not hers that was properly tanking, Dino was in second place and we had a pretty relaxed time and a lovely relaxed canter. He was awesome! He trotted when I had had enough even though Brill was still cantering in front. Amazing :wub:

The Arrandene section was a bit more stressful. We had a miscommunication about wether we were cantering up the middle field so we started, and then someone was left behind so we stopped….at which point Brill lost the plot and started rearing and bucking. There was a few moments where it was a bit confusing about whether we were going or not and they all got a bit excited…we decided to canter and Tally with Claire went forward steadily……….at which point Dino bolted. 😮 He was properly out of my control for probably only about 15 seconds but this is exactly the sort of situation I usually find terrifying.

I am super proud of myself though. It *was* scary but I didn’t get the butterflies in my stomach – feeling sick terrifiedness I usually do. Got to the top, wrestled to a halt and then it took a while to calm down but I didn’t feel like getting off and walking and we were all calm again when we got to the gate. So I’m pleased, mostly. I overall felt confident, managed to canter nicely on the railway tracks and didn’t completely fall to pieces when a scary thing did happen. I think Dino would have been fine if we’d all just cantered at the same time but stopping and starting slightly melted his brain, poor pony.

So all good! :db:

1st ever lesson in driving a car tomorrow…wish me luck!!!