On Saturday Bettina (a work collegue), and myself went to Pammy Huttons yard - Talland for an advanced dressage lesson.

Roop came along with the digital camera and took some photos of us, Bettina had also brought her camcorder but obviously I can't put movies on here, which is a shame as the digi camera can do small movies so if you want to view them, mail me and I will send them through.

When we got there we had a look around and a horse we came to call "Pay Me Some Attention" started kicking his door and wouldn't stop till we paid him some attention.

About 10 minutes later I got to meet the horse that I would be riding, a cute little 14.2hh mare called Rona. Bettina met her horse a few minutes later, a 17.2 gelding Bowsher.

Our instructer was a lovely Scottish girl, Alex, who proved to be a lot tougher than she looked. ;o) She let us work in by ourselves, lulling us into a false sense of security, then came the dreaded phrase "whole ride halt and take away your stirrups".

Now please bear in mind I only started riding again last year and have had another 6 month break so I was a little wobbly. I think Alex figured out doing too much would have the opposite effect and do harm rather than good so we only did 15 minutes of no stirrups...thank god. I also kept falling back into the old bad habit of looking down when circling. I did eventually start looking up, I think it was because I was on a strange horse. Nevermind....

All too soon it was over. For my birthday I am going to book a lesson with Pammy herself, seeing as Pammy charges about £55 for 45 minutes, it is most definitely a treat.

On the way out Rupert spotted a BumbleBee flying into a flower and couldnt't resist taking a picture.

Bettina and I have decided we are going to go to Talland once a month for a lesson and every so often Bettina will take her mare, Megan and ride her instead of the school horses.

I can't wait for the next one.

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