stupid work fucked up and have decided that actually they dont have free places for staff. Ho Hum, I can still do a 5 week short course but we'll see...

N has text me demanding that I arrange it for him to gallop a horse on a beach.
Now you might be able to do that in other countries but here in the UK? I dont think so! I've done it in the past down in Cornwall and paddled a horse out in the sea there.
But because of the safety laws to you and the horse, no one will take you out to do something like that unless you have the experience to back it up, to be able to at least control the horse at a canter and not sit there clinging to the saddle like a bag of bricks.
This is something that is really one of my pet hates.
It really irritates me, how people think you can climb onto a horse and yank and kick it into doing whatever the hell you want!
Its a living creature for fucks sake, how would you like to have someone yank you in the mouth with a iron bit the same size as your thumb and a good six inches long hitting your teeth, roof of mouth and tongue and never mind the side pieces which'll pinch?
And kicking at the horses side will lead to either one of two things.
A - The horse (and indeed most horses that I ride!) will take it as a signal to go fast, to run from something scary. And you'll inevitably fall off, cos you wont have a decent centre of balance on the horse and if you're lucky just be winded, and at worse paralysed or dead.
B- The horse, and most ploddy old riding school nags'll fall into this catorgory, will become dead. Their sides get so numb to the constant banging on their ribs that they just end up stopping feeling it and they'll amble along at a snails pace, slowly losing the will to live.
I love horse riding, but I'm greatly aware of how every action you do, reflects on the horse, how moving your leg, your arse in the saddle, how moving just one finger on the reins affects the horse and how it then reacts to what it thinks you're asking it to do.
Its most definately one of those things that gets harder the more you do it, and the more aware you are of exactly how much you need to know and be able to do, just to be able to control the horse at a walk and get it to turn a corner for example.

Dr. John Stemple, Medical Editor of the American Medical Equestrian Association News, said between 150 and 200 deaths are caused each year by horse accidents. Of those, 55 percent were caused from head injuries. Fifteen percent of the deaths were from chest injuries and 10 percent from abdominal injuries. According to the National Injury Information Clearinghouse, head injuries make up less than 12 percent of horse-related injuries, but over half of the fatal injuries.
I think you'll even find that its in the top 10 most dangerous activities to participate in, so people thinking its all just jump on and kick 'n' yank really annoys me!
Phew rant over!