Back to basics...

I realise I haven’t posted anything for the shocking time of four months... The Wayward Child had the foolishness to damage his back over the summer, so unfortunately it’s a case of starting over again with him a bit. In fact, he still isn’t ready to be brought into work, so there’s also a waiting game to played.

Actually, I have been a bit of a foreigner to the truly dedicated horsey world because I’ve been at uni for the past three months or so. I’m going back in two weeks, I doubt my horses will have a clue who I am. But being as stupid as I am, I couldn’t bear to deprive myself from horses for that long, and I joined the Equestrian Club. ‘Equestrian Club’ may sound fairly prestigious, however after a few meetings I found out that it’s just a grown-up version of the Pony Club. There are a few changes of course – this can be seen in the Inefficient Wannabe, for example.

This Inefficient Wannabe is in a class of her own, in fact, Whiny-Deluded-Spoilt-and-Brattish Inefficient Wannabe is probably more accurate. That’s WDSPIW for short. WDSPIW made her debut during the team trials when after yanking some poor nag round the arena for an hour demanded that she should be offered a place on the team. She had a variety of reasons – she had, she claimed, won national competitions at home, she adored riding as it was her only true skill, and she was so gutted from being refused a place on the netball team that she may become suicidal if the Equestrian Club were to not want her either. No matter that she can’t ride, then.

There is also a Superstar Rider. In this case she is a hundred times more irritating than the Pony Club’s version, as she can actually ride very well – it’s a combination of that and her supreme confidence and belief that she is therefore above everyone else that makes her so unbearable. She certainly didn’t help herself by introducing herself as ‘the one who rode for the French international showjumping team for five years’ before even telling anyone her name. No-one has yet to establish whether indeed this is true or not, but there is definately a general dislike for her, as her snobbish manners make her nigh on impossible to talk to.

The rest of the group is a fairly balanced mix of Snobs and Nice People. The Snobs are annoying but just about bearable, whereas the Nice People (mostly the commitee and a few select others) are, well, nice. As far as there are awful people in the club, I do like my team. I also enjoy the lessons – as strange as it is going from the horses you’ve been schooling all summer to stubborn riding school ponies, it’s also quite fun. We have a competition coming up – by pure co-incidence it happens to be in Suffolk, so I can look forward to going home.

Once the Wayward Child’s back is back to back perfection, we can take him back to back basics... And in the meantime, at least my riding hasn’t gone down the drain completely.