Horse Riding Challenge

I shouldn't have said yesterday that I though James needs a new challenge when it comes to horse riding, because of course that's exactly what he got!

Both Miramis and Corvette were in a funny mood, and Miramis was testing James over and over by trying to turn around and run home, or run off. Corvette stopped and refused to bulge and I had to get off and walk her past something she thought was scary (a parked car!?).

Then on the way back both horses were playing up, trying to speed up, skipping about. I think it's because James is getting better Miramis thought it was time to test who's the boss.

I had decided to put up a couple of small obstacles as I wanted James to practise something new. If we always do the same thing he wont make progress.

It went really well, and the horses were fine as soon as we got back to the riding course. James did two great jumps, but after the third one Miramis stumbled and went down on his knees.

Like this

James did really well though and stayed in the saddle, and Miramis got back up. We checked him over and he seemed fine, but we decided to finish the ride just in case.

Quite an adventurous ride in other words, James got his challenge and he managed it perfectly!

Talking about stumbling horses, how horrible is it what happened to the jumping horse Hickstead? He jumped a course at a competition in Italy, and died straight after, in front of the audience and his destraught rider. So increadibly sad!

Read what Emmi wrote about it in Swedish here.


Hickstead and his rider Eric Lamaze