Read Zoe's earlier blogs HERE

If you counted up the number of hours, this month, I have spent on horseback it would probably be more than I have spent not riding - that's what summers are meant to be like! Lucky for me I had help in the form of my best friend, and former Hunt pal, Georgie, who made an impulse visit to her Granddad's house.  We were delighted to be reunited, however later realised that we had failed to arrange a date for Georgie to be collected, which resulted in a three week long holiday! 

We had a great time, Dad even let us drive the Land Rover, as well as move cows with Herbie and our retired pony Widget - one hairy moment occurred when I looked across to my right and saw Georgie and Widget galloping straight down the hill towards the hedge, with the fait cry from Georgie…'Widget STOP!'

The best moment of Georgie’s stay has to be when we saw a photo of someone jumping bareback in Horse and Hound, Georgie and I promptly decided we needed to have a go - que Herbie! With no martingale or saddle to be seen we set off for the school, mum and dad decided it was best to leave us to our own devises! 

I went first, I have to say it would have been a lot easier if Georgie hadn't fallen over with laughter as I slid around on Herbie's back - she was crying 'you look like a wiggly worm bouncing around up there!', poor Herbie! I was weak with laughter and clinging on to his mane for dear life, eventually we both composed ourselves and put up a jump which started at about 1ft - surprisingly I found the jumping part the easiest, so the jump kept going up until it was at the top of the wings, at about 1.10m. So I came in to the jump with Herbie's head up in the air life a giraffe and all I could do was kick - he flew it! I looked round to Georgie who was grinning like a Cheshire cat and then I saw dad stood by the arena, who simply said 'I wonder if I could do that!?' 

Next it was Georgie's turn. I made sure she had the same treatment she gave me, she soon realised it wasn't as easy as it looks. 'I'm sliding, I'm sliding,' was all she could manage in between gripping onto Herbie and pulling concerned like facial expressions. Eventually she felt she was ready for a jump which started small. She hoped over it perfectly, only then to nearly slide off the side as Herbie went round the corner! For some reason she couldn't quite master the corner; every time she would almost but not quite plop off the side. It was very entertaining for dad and I! Finally we had the jump a few holes from the top, but Herbie stopped, Georgie slid up his neck and twisted to the left as Herbie put his head down, amazingly she stayed on, which we later realised was due to her using Herbie's knee joint as a foot stop and steadying herself with it - man I wish I had legs that long! 

As you can see we had a great time. Georgie Loveday (her full name) is a fantastic photographer and all the photos accompanying this blog have been taken by her. She has some more amazing photos on her website http://georginaloveday.wix.com/g-l-photography - so check it out!

Until next time!

If you'd like to read more about my journey please feel free to check out my own blog - CLICK HERE