Welcome to my newest blog!

A potted history of my horse-riding life:

After many years of begging and pleading I eventually got a riding lesson for my 13th or 14th birthday. After that I took lessons whenever I could afford them, which was not often, however by the time I was 15 I was at the stage of being able to fling myself over an 18in x-pole from a trot, though I had never really learned how to canter.

That summer I managed to get a riding lesson every week for 6 weeks, then disaster struck! Being a complete novice (still) and knowing nothing about tack, I didn't check the girth on my stubborn little pony, and during the brief canter exercise the saddle slipped and I came off, landing heavily on my lower back. For many minutes I couldn't feel my legs at all! I know I gave the instructor quite a shock. Anyway eventually I was able to get back on (in the great British tradtion, of course) and continued the lesson. What I didn't realise at the time was that I had severely damaged the muscles around my right hip, an issue which still causes problems today, more than 15 years on.

Fast forward to the summer of my 16th year, and I was on a family holiday in Morocco. One of the activities advertised in the hotel was horse riding, so again, I pleaded with my parents (my mum mostly) to be allowed to go on this excursion. After much humming and harring, I was allowed to go. We got to the riding centre and I said that I was a novice rider, and they said that they would put me on a quiet horse (hah!). I was so pleased to be back on horseback (wearing shorts, t-shirt and sand shoes... NO hat (the very thought makes me quivver now) and we set off. A couple of minor incidents later, and I can't really remember much due to a forthcoming accident, and we came to a village. Out shoots a dog and it starts barking at my horse... my horse bolts and I'm left clinging on and hoping for the best. Now once we stop, after jumping up onto a concrete bank, I'm now sure if I fainted and fell off, or if I fell off and was knocked unconscious then. I certainly have no idea how long I was unconscious for until the rest of the group found me. Anyway I had to get back on and ride for another 30 mins before we got back to the centre.

This episode has left me with a deep fear of going fast, and being out of control. It has certainly dominated the rest of my riding ever since.

OK... now we can fast forward to April 2003, when newly transplanted to Switzerland, I find out via a colleague that I can get riding lessons in English. So my riding career starts again, and I have to relearn everything from scratch. After 2 years I'm starting to get bored, I feel that I'm not progressing, and my regular instructor is coming abck from maternity leave and is not there fore more than half my lessons. Lessons with the other instructors is boring, and I'm really starting to feel like giving up... apart from it is so expensive - 540CHF (about £250) for 6 lessons.

In May 2005 my Dad dies due to Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, which he had been fighting for less than 18 months, and in the July I meet the niece of my manager who was looking after her horses. We got talking and after a few beers (!) we decode that it is a great idea that I should buy my own horse and I'll progress faster that way (hah!)

By the beginning of September I was the proud owner of Pinto, and now all my fears began to surface once again.

During my lessons in Switzerland I'd had a couple of bad falls, including one where I thought I may have cracked my pelvis, and all occurred in canter, so now my confidence in canter was zero.

I was also terrified to hack out, and even riding in a field was almost incapacitating, which was too bad, considering I had to do all of my riding in a field!

Due to family reasons, my friend left in Jan 2006, and I felt that I had to find somewere with an indoor school to move Pinto to. Luckily there was a place available at a riding school not too far away, and we moved at the end of Jan.

Since then I have had group lessons on Pinto once a week, but once again I felt that I was getting nowhere, my confidence in some areas was improving, but in others it was lower and lower, til by June this year I didn't want to ride at all!

So I basically gave Pinto a break over the summer, we hacked out occasionally, by ourselves and sometimes with friends, but we didn't go near the manege. Once classes started again in September I asked my riding instructor if I could continue the lessons on club horses. She agreed, and 4 weeks ago my rehabilitation began!