an excellent day - but with a cloud...

I went to Smeltings Farm in Sheffield (link in heading, i hope!) for a lesson - on a simulator, followed by a horse...

One of Heather Moffett's sims, Damien has one in Sheffield, i'd been on one twice before but a few years ago, and this was part of the lesson plan for the winter (the only bit that's gone to plan, LOL).

I was fractionally late getting there, due to a very nasty accident on the M1 - one car ended up on its roof in the inside lane, the other further up the slip road (the barnsley turn off) looking very beaten up. It had clearly happened some time previous as the queue was only 20 minutes or so and the ambulances etc were long gone. but a very nasty nasty.

So we worked on position/movement/feel for a bit - i gather it was about 3/4 hour, which is probably about right

then onto the horse, a nice coloured cob mare, about 9, that Damian's had since she was 6 months.

I was quite pleased with myself.....if i say so myself!

We had to work on the lower leg (i need to keep it still, particularly the right one which is the one that has always caused me problems, ever since i first got on a pony 48 years ago!) but he said my hands were fine (i thought they still bounce up and down in trot, apparently not, so i've been working on myself to some effect over the last few years!) and (no doubt in common with everyone else) i need to not try too hard!

New things to me - double reins, which no one had ever shown me how to use before (the mare goes best in a pelham, so I had to learn that) and i managed quite well until the cold got into my wrist.

And for the first time in my riding life - i actually sat a trot! i'd never been able to get that before, so very pleased with that! TBF, this was a VERY comfortable mare whose paces made it very easy.

Finished on the lunge, just to see if we could sort my right leg out (not proper lunge lesson, this was so i could work on a particular position thing without having to maintain pace) and so that Damian could watch what happens ... at one point, going round left rein, he asked me to halt, which i did, and at that moment the right leg/foot did it's thing so i said, come round and look at this... so we changed reins so he could watch.

After that, the mare rightly said she'd had enough, as she'd worked hard as well.

So, you all say, where's the cloud?

Regular readers will remember my ride on Red, Natasha's husband's horse, back in the autumn - friday, 19th november ... and that i couldn't get off. I thought at the time that it was just the saddle and the height of the horse.

NOT.

i couldn't get off. the saddle i was on was a vogue, same as mine....

had to go to mounting block, keep left foot in stirrup and use that extra leverage to be able to get right leg back up enough to get off, and down onto mounting block.

I reckon that, in the accident in august, i did some damage to the hip that hasn't been addressed - i was thinking about it driving back up - at the time it hurt quite a bit, and the bruising when it came through had to be seen to be believed (ended up black, and not only on the soft part of the hip but down the bones at the front as well). Hospital did have a good poke and prod at the time, after they'd reduced the dislocation, but said it wasn't broken, which it probably wasn't ...

But, I cannot get the right leg back up enough to clear the top of the saddle, when i'm on the horse - no where near.

So, the plan is, i will get GP appointment, get referred back to hospital for the wrist, get the hip x-rayed just to see what if anything was done, and then physio on the hip.

I am SOOOOOO pleased i broke the rules and didn't get on Monfy when i went to see him - my being unable to get off would have fried his poor brain, i reckon! but by the time he's done a load of groundwork and i've done a load of physio, we should be ok.

Also, someone at yard suggested i perhaps should practice getting off the other side - that's probably a really good plan, but will need something much smaller and safe to practice that on - the body habit will take a lot of breaking.

And when I got back, Monfy had his teeth done this evening - i really wanted that done before i put a bit in his mouth, and anyway worth checking. Phillip reckoned, from the look, they were about due to be done, but there wasn't anything other than general rasping to do.