by PreciousAndMe, age 13

Hello horse girls! I know the title must sound ridiculously weird, but it will all make sense in a minute…

Firstly, let me explain a few things. Mitzy is a dappled grey mare at my riding school, and I hadn’t ridden her up until this point. Now, my riding school is situated on a huge hill, so there are lots of steep and potentially dangerous areas due to this.

We were on a hack. The day was lovely and it was my first time riding Mitzy. Last time I had seen her, she had been ridden by my sister and had been lovely. But this time was another story.

That morning, I had lost my riding clothes. Gone, vanished. So I had to leave without my gloves. Now, as it turned out, Mitzy was having a head tossing problem that day and kept trying to rip the reins out of my hands.

The hack was going perfectly fine (minus a few bumps in the road) when we got near a hill bit. So, let me explain. There’s the main path but also an upward ascent to a paddock. There is a way from the main path to get to the paddock (the way we weren’t going) but Mitzy decided that we were going for a mountain climbing expedition. It’s safe to say that I was thoroughly surprised.

It got even worse when we came to a downhill slope. There were two sides; the less steep side and the incredibly steep side. I did everything I could to direct Mitzy to the less steep side, using every aid, but she just didn’t want to listen. Mitzy turned and headed straight for the really steep side!

I leaned back like you should, but that didn’t stop my stomach dropping, or my heart to pound twice as fast. I felt like I would fall and end up rolling down the hill. But I was safe. Mitzy, though, took it all in her stride.

What an adventure, huh? Mitzy is truly a Mountain Goat at heart, wanting to climb any mountain or hill in her sight. Even if that means giving me quite a shock as I cling on with all my might!

Keep on riding (and try not to go mountain climbing!)

PAM xx

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