Ever since Priya's little 5 minute pony ride at Nutley Fete, she's wanted to have another go which I'm delighted about as a rider myself (although very out of practice). I booked them in at Ashdown Riding who had run the pony ride tasters at the fete for a 30 minute trek on the forest.
We were slightly late (well, turned up bang on 10:30 which is not ideal when I knew there'd be forms to fill in, helmets to fit etc.) due to a pesky Robin deciding to fly into our house and poo all over the living room and me as I tried to open windows for it to fly out again! Bad timing!! Anyway, when we managed to leave our (now empty) house and get up to the riding stables which was a little tricky to find, they were able to sort us out quickly and we were soon on our way.
Kalyan and Priya were riding Damsel and Myler respectively (I think) and I tagged along to take some photos, of course! Jenny who runs the stables led the twins and helped direct them how to hold on and lean back, etc. She was great chatting to them all the way and dealing with K when he had a little wobble (he didn't think he could lean back and started crying for me but she held up her hand for me to stay back and convinced him he could do it and he soon calmed down).
They had a lovely time, P was smiling the whole time and can't wait to go again! The weather was lovely (if a bit hot for me after only just making it out of the house after being bed-ridden for days with my horrible tonsil infection), the forest looked gorgeous with blue skies and the purple heather again. It was tricky lighting for photos being so bright with stark shadows but I did my best to capture the fun...
