Introduction

For all of you people who don't know me, my name is Grace, and that is all you should know because this is my horse's blog not mine. However i am his writer so if i don't get things right i might be fired (but unfortunately for him I'm the only writer he has :-D).

I'll have to tell you the basics of things. I'll try not to give you to many details. You know being a wannabe writer and all i best not let slip that i have fallen from three different horses four times and have zero confidence in myself. Well that is not entirely true, i have more now thanks to Prince.

The first fall i had was off my first horse Cinders who used to bolt for home, and then the next day was no good to ride because she was to sore from her arthritis, in her back, by the way did i mention that i fell off on a metal track and landed on my head? Yeah well that hurts!

My second fall was off a fast young horse called Molly, who cantered on the wrong lead (leg for you none horsey people) and joined with the saddle slipping i fell off, landing and rolling in a nice soft patch of long grass. Yay!

By this time i had lost just about all confidence and trust for horses and i refused to go any faster then a walk.

However much to my disgust my next fall was off my horse. The horse i had only just got and had owned him for about six months. He had grass staggers really bad, he could even stand straight while i was picking out his feet. His feet would shake while i was doing them. Also he was badly dehydrated, because he did not like drinking from the plastic trough because it tasted like plastic (i don't blame him).

I tried telling my mum (who had never seen a grass staggered horse despite having owned horses for twenty years) that he was sick. She told me to -just get on and ride him, so i did.

When he saw the other horses in the paddock eating a new strip of fresh grass his befuddled mind told him that he was supposed to be in there and stuff riding. He threw me off with this nasty combination- buck, rear, buck, rear. I landed on my shoulder and rolled!

After that i refused to get back on him. I just started doing heaps of groundwork. About a year later i was slowly starting to ride again (its not like the movies where you just get on and whola! you get all your confidence back and you can do anything!) nope i was just walking around the paddock and doing short little rides around a farm.

Sadly my third fall was while i was feeling kinda confident about riding. He got a fright from a herd of cows running out from behind a row of trees, and a dock brushing him under the belly. His mind reverted back to wild horse instincts and he thought, i must get this tiger off my back or its going to kill me! He reared and spun around on his hind legs and then put his head between his front legs and just bucked and bucked. I had lost my stirrups and my reins and i was holding on like a bucking bronc rider. One handed on the saddle. But lastly he spun again and the saddle slipped and i fell off. Pity, because i landed on my head. AGAIN!

So that's brought you up to date on my confidence and my falls.

Right'o. Lately my confidence has gotten good enough for me to ride him again now that i ride by myself ( nobody to worry about except for my horse), and i have been doing trotting and trying to get him to side pass (go sideways), only he does it when i don't think about doing it.

The trotting we have being doing is around the tramp in the paddock. Yes, we have a trampoline in the paddock! Unfortunately its been squashing my grass, so i'm going to have to road ride again.