It's been one of those weeks where I felt that things were shifting, changes that had started were becoming more tangible.  Sometimes change can be minor and running quietly through your life, and then you have a week where you can sit up and really notice it, even though the final increment was not that huge.  

I've got a project going on in my life that I'm not quite ready to write about, but will be able to reveal quite shortly, hopefully after Easter.  That's making progress and is part of what I'm talking about.  

However, the main thing to write about is that this week I went riding, over at Helen's.  Helen is blessed to be the owner of four horses, with a fifth currently residing with her as well.  She has two Lusitanos, and last year took on two black veteran cobs, Brynne and Rudy.  On previous visits we've done stuff with the horses- I've been involved in tack cleaning, feeding, grooming and clipping, but haven't ridden.  Tuesday was our first outing.  Helen was riding Jaitoso, her beautiful Lusitano and I was riding Brynne.   

As you can see from the pics, Brynne is a very hairy boy - he's not clipped at the moment (apart from his feathers) and of course at this time of year, is just starting to lose his teddy bear coat for the summer.  After catching and grooming him, we tacked up and had a comedy moment when it was time to mount.  Fortunately an old oil tin was pressed into service and from there I made my rather inelegant ascent.  However, once I was on, wow! It felt wonderful - and I realised how much I had missed it.  Horses are a bug that are pretty much impossible to cure.  There have been times in my life where horses havent' been a part of it, but it's amazing how often they creep back in, usually because I end up being friends with people who have them or work with them.  

We set off for a rather leisurely hack - Floss the sheepdog came with us, and we set off down the lane, Helen in front and Brynne having to trot every few paces to keep up as his legs are so much shorter.  He hadn't been ridden since arriving on the farm, and it was obvious that he was very interested but also very nervous.  He got spooked by a few things along the way - Floss leaping out of a hedge, dogs barking, a pheasant shooting out of a copse but was clearly also immensely interested.  After some road hacking we turned into a field of Helen's and onto grass, and at this point he nearly took off as it appeared that in his previous life grass was indelibly associated with galloping.  I didn't feel that a flat out gallop was what I wanted on our first ride together so we walked for a bit and then returned to the lane.  An hour was plenty for our first ride and on the way back Jaitoso hurt his hoof on a stone so Helen walked him.  After we returned, I got off (still not very elegant), untacked and then we turned them out.  It was a delight to watch Brynne having a blissful roll and then cantering round the field as they played together.  

Not surprisingly, I was stiff the next day but I am really looking forward to riding again, and forming a partnership with Brynne.