start horseriding again

...and my bum is absolutely killing me! I don’t remember it being painful before, but ow!

Other than this, the lesson was good, although harder work than I expected. I was hoping everything would come flooding back to me once I got on, but sadly not. Felt a bit wobbly at points, and couldn’t remember things like diagonals, but I think that’s partly because I was never that good with things like that when I used to ride before. However, I did get to work without stirrups and canter at the end.

Haven’t booked another lesson yet, but I think I’ll go again fairly soon – I need to get good quickly so that it stops hurting quickly :-). In the meantime, I think I’ll read a book to remind me of the theory, and give me a fighting chance for next time.

...for Friday at 11.30am – have a weird excited but nervous feeling in my stomach. I think I’ve been building this up too much, but not long to wait now.

I’ve decided to give Aldersbrook Riding School (www.aldersbrookriding.co.uk) a go – according to the AA it should only take 8 minutes to drive there, and their prices seem very reasonable – £20 for a group lesson, £25 for a private lesson. And they will organise forest hacks or “stop off at the pub” rides for experienced riders, which is something to look forward to for the future.

Once I’ve picked up some riding gear from my parents next week, I’m going to book a session.

Can’t wait!

Following my plan to make a little progress towards each goal each week, I’ve just booked train tickets to go visit my folks & pick up my riding gear. Not a huge step, but next week will be bigger, I hope.

Grrh! Just got back from my parents’ place in Cheshire and have only just remembered that one of the things holding me back from this particular goal is that my boots and jodphurs are somewhere in my dad’s loft. It would really have made sense to pick them up while I was there…