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.

July 28, 2013
Day 2
This morning we had a really good practice. One of our additional ponies, Jack, lent by our new friend Steph, joined us. Julia clicked with him right away. Great match.

For a while we had six ponies going so I sat and walked around on the spare one while everyone warmed up and swapped around on the ponies, until it was time to get to coaching.

We started with some hand off drills and then moved through an assortment of races, getting used to the ponies and difference in equipment. After a good two hours we called it for the day and put the ponies back up.

We enjoyed lunch, trying new potato chip flavors, and had a good team meeting. We discussed the ride and ponies and what’s to come.

July 27, 2013
Day 1
We landed in London safe and sound bright and early this morning. I don’t think any of us managed more than a collective 45 minutes of sleeping on the flight. Yawn.

Juliet picked us up in Rob’s nifty horse van and we headed to New Forest.

The girls were ready to ride as soon as we parked. I on the other hand felt like I was going to fall asleep at any moment.

So ride they did. Megan found her match in the adorable Jiggy. They are too cute together. Sammy also found a great match in the spicy little Foxy. Both tiny and quick.

After a little schooling juliet led them out on a trail ride through the Forest while I took a too short nap.

Te rain rolled in as soon as they or back from the ride. Good timing. We made some plans, did some chores, took some showers.

Annie and Sammi were kind enough to accompany me to the grocery store and we stocked up on some food. and yeah, our team bank card worked!

We are just now finishing up a lovely dinner that juliet prepared for us and I think it is almost time to get a good sleep.

Yawn! Looking forward to a practice in the morning.