Notre première leçon d'équitation en française

We have a riding centre a couple of kilometres away from us - towards town. We have been planning on having lessons there since we got the horses. However we kind of didn't have full motivation to get on and do it because we had heard very mixed views on them. Some people had really enjoyed lessons and others less so. We were also nervous about how it would work having lessons in French, it is hard enough sometimes in English understanding what someone is asking you to do!

Last week we finally got round to joining the club (which is the cheapest option for insurance) and booking a block of 10 lessons. Today was our first one.

We woke to torrential rain and one million mile an hour winds. That wasn't the forecast! We swam down to the field (or waterfall) and collected a pair of disgruntled horses. They were impressed with the dryness of the barn, but a bit put out by the creaking and clunking noises it makes in the wind. We managed to take them up in the near darkness of the barn, but then we all had to venture outside for the ride down to the equestrian centre. We had our trusty drizabone's on so we weren't too wet and cold when we arrived. We did have to wade through several feet of water covering the road in one place - easier on a horse than in most cars. Luckily the lesson was in the indoors school!

We started of working with the horses from the ground which we had not done before and really enjoyed (so did the horses). The purpose is to form trust and a bond with the horse. Then we did some riding - mainly so he could check us out for next time I think, we did a bit of work in walk, trot and canter and a small jump. He gave us some feedback to work on for next time in addition to the ground exercises.

We think it was Daisy's first time in a school, she was very good. Probably also her first time over jumps too - she was a little doubtful but gave it a good shot when Doug persuaded her to give it a go. Owen is an old hand in the school, so all mistakes were mine!

We really really enjoyed the lesson and are very glad we have finally got round to it. We hardly noticed it was in French - it was no more incomprehensible than a lesson in English! Or more likely he spoke very slowly and clearly with a lot of gestures and used simple words, he teaches a lot of children so I guess he is used to that.

This picture in no way shows how horrendous the weather was!