... and all y'all get to hear about it!
My support worker Kirsty had been wanting to take me on a trail ride since I started trotting during riding lessons last year, and today we finally did just that!
We drove for about an hour down past Anglesea to a place called Blazing Saddles, where we went on a bush ride involving a little cantering as well as trotting. The trail followed the road about half the time, and all the cantering was done on wide parts of the bit through the woods. It is truly a gorgeous place to ride through, especially after rain, because the vivid greenery is contrasted sharply by the tree trunks still black from the last bushfire. The horse I rode was a gorgeous bay, the colour of melted dark chocolate with cream all but completely stirred in, with a white stripe down her face. She was a bit awkward to ride, however, as they keep their horses very well fed, and they use stock saddles, which are thicker leather than the all-purpose used at SaddleOn. She also loved to travel down the verge of the track,, which made cantering very difficult as she kept forgetting about my foot, and would have easily removed it via solid tree trunks which were along the side of the trail. There were several trunks with obvious dents at foot-height where they'd been kicked by passing riders, and a road sign was also dented. Quite an amusing discovery!
I was quite sore afterwards, having not ridden for several weeks, but a warm shower when I got home certainly helped!
Of course, what made a great day fantastic was finally getting a map of a game-world in the mail that I won in a raffle in the game - all using the in-game currency! It's going to get framed and hung at some point.... hopefully!
Here's a pic of the horse I rode
