Bit of a confidence boost

[ahlam1399]

A friend I've not seen for a long time tagged me in a post on Facebook yesterday. It was me on her old pony, taken about 20 years ago at the Badminton fun ride. The pony in question was only 5 or 6 and had never seen an XC fence before that day. I went with an open mind, prepared for it to go horribly wrong but hoping it wouldn't. I'd sat on her a few times and jumped her once, the week before. We started off scared of a tiny log on the floor and finished off jumping the huge (to me!) square straw bales. I say jumped, she actually banked them (and as far as I remember banked any sort of jump like that all her life!). I just tucked her in behind my friend's horse for the first few, off we went and she took to it like a duck to water to the point we were giving others leads by the end :) My friend's horse then totally lost it. There were long queues for photographers and we had to wait for ages. She doesn't do standing around and completely flipped, lost all sense of self preservation was leaping and plunging everywhere. After an hour of this my friend was physically and emotionally drained and didn't even have the strength to lead her horse so we swapped! I admit I only lasted about 10 minutes before getting off and leading her (she was lethal) but looking I'm amazed I even contemplated it! I'd completely forgotten about the day but the photo triggered some good memories and has given me a bit of a confidence boost. It's nice to remember I have done things like that with a youngster and I do have the guts to get on a horse that is proving to be a handful. OK it was 20 years ago but it's made me realise I'm probably a better rider now than I was then and definitely a better rider than I give myself credit for! Sorry pointless post but I might come back to read it in future when I need to so wanted it written down somewhere I could find it!

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