July 28,2013

So to recap on this mornings practice. Julia was leaning off of Jack when he did a buck and twist, and she took a very minor tumble onto the extra fluffy pillow like footing – it really felt like pillows (julia says). She bounced up and we spent a while catching Jack. (No worry momma gates)

Julia… i mean Leah (note to self – get the blondes names straight-lol) figured out Cisca, the tallest pony we are working with. She is very different than the teams US ponies. You do not want to touch her reins until you need to stop. And then she STOPS.

Enough about practice, this afternoon Juliet showed us around. First we we had a photo shoot with some wild New Forest ponies. We saw a lot of them as we continued our afternoon adventure.

We stopped in Burley, which is a cute little town that markets itself around its history of witches. We looked in some shops and enjoyed some ice cream.

Then we went to High Cliff Castle, which is a lovely restored castle that sits above the beach. Of course we had to scale the cliff down to the beach. Which was aweeee-sommme.

We could see whitecliff in the distance. I noticed the ocean smell was not as string as home. Not at all as salty. But it was the English Channel not the Atlantic Ocean.

On the way back we stopped at Rob’s house and saw his foal, Sky.

We enjoyed a fan-tab-u-lous dinner that Annie prepared (super sweet to have a group that cooks).

And now we are writing this blog together, eating Hobnobs and discussing tomorrow’s activities.