shaldna

i was never any good at dressage, and my TB loves jumping, but has absolutly no scope, so anything over 2’6 is too much. we’ve done some endurence, but he’s so patient and elegant that i feel he’s a bit wasted. he doesn’t have the best style in the world, and he has a twist in his back leg which rules out serious competition, but i’d like to do some riding club classes, maybe a preliminary

it’s hard to find instructors who teach this, what i did was buy a second hand saddle for my wonderfully gentlemanly TB and just give it a go. It took him a few goes to get used to it. he drifts a bit so loosing a leg was interesting, and the saddle is MUCH heavier than our usual lightweight treeless one. It also took me a long time to realise that i wasn’t going to slide off, and get used to sitting a little further back than usual.

that said, it’s wonderfully elegant and great fun to learn. i would recomend it to anyone.

i’ve been writing seriously since i was about 18, i just loved it. i still do. this year i published ‘nocturne’ which is my first book, and i have another one on the way. one day i want to be able to make a living from writing, but that may be a long way off yet.

still, it is worth doing, and to anyone who is thinking about it, i say give it a go.