I soon got used to riding Honey and it was like owning a horse of my own. Because I had to walk so far with the tack I very rarely used a horse saddle, looking back now I do not think that I would last five minutes bareback but as kids you seemed to have more balance. Back then I did not even own a riding hat but now the first thing I do is put on my riding hat, strange how growing up makes you much more cautious.

One day we decided to go around to Granny’s to do some jumping, Jo was on Goldie and I was on Honey as usual, I had no saddle but was not worried about it. Jo wanted some advice from Granny because Goldie would not jump at all, so in the little paddock Granny had set up some small jumps, we were so excited, Honey flew around them, it felt so good to be jumping, she never stopped once and she seemed to enjoy it as much as me. Then it was Jo’s turn to go round the jumps but Goldie would not jump at all, we tried every thing to get Goldie to jump but nothing worked. Granny said to come back the next day and try again but first to go out on a hack to tire him out a bit, then he might not be so quite so full of himself.

The next day I tacked up Honey with a saddle, I know, quite a novelty for me. I met Jo along the road, we decided to go through the woods for our ride because it only took forty five minutes but we could let them go at the gallop. This would hopefully tire out Goldie enough to make Jo handle him better back at Granny’s. This seemed to do the trick as he actually trotted over the trotting poles without hesitating. Granny put the jumps up to the first hole, Honey flew around the course followed by Goldie, it was amazing the higher the jumps went up the easier they both seemed to jump.

Granny told us to jump the fence out into the main field where there was more solid jumps to practise on. Well we did not need to be told twice, we flew over the fence and galloped out around the field, it was almost like a horse cross country course that they had built, there were more jumps and most of them were the same height that we had just been jumping. I think that I was slightly over cocky. I turned in and let Honey go at the first jump, as she cantered up to it I got ready for the take off, Jo was right behind me on Goldie.

The next thing I knew I was led on my back looking up at the sky, ouch that hurt, getting up I saw Jo hanging on for dear life around Goldie’s neck as he bolted around the field, he was heading straight for the muck heap. and just as he reached it he sharply swerved left, poor Jo never stood a chance, she landed face first in the muck heap, mmmmm nice, she jumped up straight away and started to laugh, which was just as well as Granny was trying to come to our rescue but was laughing so much it was a very slow progress.

Trying to catch Honey and Goldie was no laughing matter though, and running round the field getting all hot and sticky made Jo smell even worse than she did before, eventually we managed to catch them both with a little help from a bucket of horse nuts and we mounted back up ready to go home. Honey flew over the fence back into the small paddock but Goldie was having none of it. This was the only place that we could get out, all the other fencing was over six foot high, so to get out she had to jump the small part of the fence where we had jumped in. Goldie reared and bucked as soon as Jo turned him in to face the fence, Granny stood behind him to try and coax him forward but he started to kick out at her. His sweat was thick and white now but he still would not give in and jump the fence, even me jumping back over so he could follow me did not help, it just seemed to make him more stubborn about the whole thing, so we had no choice but to leave him there over night.

As it was starting to get dark Jo asked me if I would go and tell Goldie’s owner what had happened while she untacked him and rubbed him down,ready to put his sweat rug on, I trotted off to make sure that I could get back before it had got completely dark. Around the corner I went but pulled up Honey when I heard Jo yelling behind me. Turning around I saw Goldie galloping up the road towards me, but where was Jo? Apparently, as I left and went around the corner, Goldie decided he did not want to be left on his own. He reared up, taking Jo by surprise as she was just dismounting the horse, span around, which made the dismount even quicker, and then shot straight over the fence and came to find us.

He stopped right in front us and rubbed his nose against Honey’s, bless him, he was in love with Honey and did not want her to leave him. I looked over Goldies head and saw a very angry Jo walking along the road. I tried to tell her how sweet it was about Goldie and Honey but she didn’t listen because she was so angry. I don’t really know why, ha ha. She cheered up later though, I think having a bath helped. Looking back on our day we realised that owning a horse of our own was going to be a lot of fun.

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