First rides!

Yayayayayy! I've now had two successful rides with Vallu back home now! On the first day it was all hands on deck, with mum holding the reins and feeding Vallu sweets whilst dad was hand walking Nelli in the arena with us at the same time. All went well and Vallu was super well behaved. Yesterday I got on at nearly 8pm and I got on with only mum giving Vallu sweets not holding on in front of the stables, and then proceeded to ride to the arena where we then did 15 minutes of walk work on our own before going back. Vallu was tense for the first few minutes and called for the others before settling down and doing some really good relaxed work. I did a lot of lateral work (shoulder in, travers, leg yield and half pass) to get him focussed on me and not on the fact that he was on his own in the evening when he's used to getting fed at that time! I'm so pleased that we only had a few bunny hops/buttunderandtakeoff moves.

 The reason for this slight hysteria is that I fell off the last time I rode him in England... And I can't even say that I rode him, Vallu threw me off before I had properly managed to get on!! :D Naughty pony. Lili had been super lovely and promised to take us to Beacon Hills for a short hack before I left, but Vallu clearly had other ideas as whilst I was getting on he leapt in the air and whilst all four feet were off the ground in mid air he bucked and I got thrown off in the car park. Mortifying! And petrifying, as then Vallu decided to gallop about for the following fifteen minutes and not let anyone catch him. Even after 2 weeks I still have a sore hip and poorly knee :( Vallu's had a day off today and we start again tomorrow to see how he's feeling!

Someone sent me this the day :D