Hee Haw!

Let me share with you one of the awesomest things that happened to me this week. 

I went for my first horse riding lesson at the Nottingham Riding Centre and I brought my friend Raghavi along with me. She was almost reluctant to join me when she saw the horses as we entered the gates because they are BIG and they neigh quite loudly. If you think too much about the accidents that people would usually tell you about, it is most likely that you'd feel afraid to get too close to them. Just don't stand behind a horse if you're having doubts.

I met this pony who had a haircut (looks like a mohawk really), but she wasn't the one I was riding on. I got Billy, a white horse that had black patches on his body - making him look like a cow. The first thing I learnt about horses is that they can either like you, dislike you, or just ignore you. My first reaction I got from Billy was a no-reaction. With me on his back, he strayed away from the group and walked to his hay stack, leaving me helpless on him until the stable manager had to come rescue me.

We started off by learning how to hold the reins - how to direct a horse with it and how to tighten it whenever Billy attempts to put his head down to chew on more grass (Hannah my instructor told me that he can eat at the stables later so it's not like mean or anything to stop him from eating then). We learnt how to walk and trot, hmm, let me tell you how exciting and painful trotting is for first timers.

My trotting experience was this: getting slightly thrown up and down and up and down while Billy trots. Painful for the butt? Yes. Clutching on the saddle tightly? Yes. But my oh my it was so very exciting! Billy also started cantering a bit, that's like a slow horse jog in my interpretation - but we didn't go as far as learning how to canter because it was all almost too overwhelming for me already, haha!

I'm going again soon, bringing Kimmie this time round because she wants to have a try at it too. And if anyone visits me soon, I'm definitely bringing them for a hack at least!

Also, here's what my brother told me:

Sigh.