Cycling with Poppy

Fairly recently we started cycling with Poppy. We didn't exactly mean to as we thought she would be a nightmare, but when she naughtily caught us up one time (having escaped from Janet!), and she actually turned out not to be too bad as long as you don't go very fast downhill.
Since we started I have been keen to cycle in to town in the evening for a meal and some drinks.
We gave it a trial run when Rob and Sarah were staying (thanks Denise for the loan of your bike and sorry I failed to return it before coming to London!!). It was really fun. I think we learnt two key lessons
1.) Give Poppy a chance to go to the toilet before setting off - she suddenly decided to screech to a halt from full tilt causing Rob to fall in to the verge - luckily he wasn't hurt
2.) We need better front lights on our bikes. It is really dark along outside the town where there are no street lights. Reeeeaally dark. It was lucky Sarah had her head torch on otherwise we would have had problems staying on the road. Slightly different to cycling in London!

I am wondering about getting a device that lets you tie the lead to your saddle stem as I tried it like that when walking the bike and she can pull you off balance less - the worry of it like this is that you cannot let go if she is tied on. It seems you can get some kind of velcro thing that is meant to give when pulled hard. Bit of a worry it would give too soon or too late though.

These photos were from another ride we took in to town via a scenic route rather than along the road. One day we would like to take the horses along there in to town too. We imagine tying them up in a pay and display parking space with a sticker stuck on them.