Post by dalesnfellfan on Nov 20, 2016 11:39:30 GMT -1
we certainly got a big surprise. I met a friend, who has been nannying Em and I on our first few PR's and her quiet cob Ronnie for a nice quiet ride in The Kings forest yesterday, it was cold but the sun was shining and we set off at a leisurely pace. Julia had wanted to ride in this part of the forest as there have been a lot of felling going on and she wanted to do a rece for a ride being run in 2 weeks by a local bridleways group, although no areas were closed to riders she wanted to see what damage the large machinery had done to the tracks.
We had been riding for about half an hour or so when we came to a crossroads in the tracks beside a large pile of felled logs, there were plastic posts and tape across the track ahead and the track to our left, sort of around the corner, we thought it must be something to do with the felling and as we wanted to go right we thought we'd just go round it.
We continued up the wide track in trot and met 2 cyclists coming fast toward us quite fast, Emerald is used to bikes but she thought this was too fast and spun and tried to take off, fortunately I stayed on and stopped her going anywhere and we carried on. More tape around the corner of the next junction but we thought nothing of it and carried on trotting along, then we noticed an official looking man in orange hi-viz striding purposely towards us, it turns out that there was a dog and bike race being held and we had strayed onto the track, it involved either teams of 4 dogs or a single dog pulling along a rider on a bike at great speed, they appeared to be greyhound type dogs, now we knew what the tape was for.
He had radioed to the previous steward to hold the racers at the last checkpoint while he directed us safely off the track, no sooner had we got round the tape on the next corner than the first single dog and bike came hurtling towards us and round the corner, both Ronnie and Em spun and tried to leg it but we managed to stop them and turned to let them stand and watch the next few racers. The race track had been set up in a large square with tracks crossing the middle of the square and we were now in the middle of it, so although we were off the race tack. to get clear of it we had to cross it again twice, we approached both crossing with caution and let the ponies stand and watch the racers whizzing past on both sides of the crossing before carrying on. Having got over the shock of the first one both ponies now stood and watched with interest.
Once clear of it all we had a lovely ride, when we first went round the tape we rode some distance along the race track and were so luck just to have happened to have hit it at the time when there was a lull between the teams and the singles races, I dread to think what would have happened if we had been 5 min earlier and had met cyclists being pulled by 4 dogs hurtling down the track towards us, it just doesn't bear thinking about.
I was very pleased with the way Em handled herself as although she spun at first she calmed down very quickly and calmly watched with great interest following the racers with her head as they stormed past her.
I wonder if she told Connie all about her adventures when she got home, I can just imagine her saying "you'll never guess what we saw in the forest today"
We had been riding for about half an hour or so when we came to a crossroads in the tracks beside a large pile of felled logs, there were plastic posts and tape across the track ahead and the track to our left, sort of around the corner, we thought it must be something to do with the felling and as we wanted to go right we thought we'd just go round it.
We continued up the wide track in trot and met 2 cyclists coming fast toward us quite fast, Emerald is used to bikes but she thought this was too fast and spun and tried to take off, fortunately I stayed on and stopped her going anywhere and we carried on. More tape around the corner of the next junction but we thought nothing of it and carried on trotting along, then we noticed an official looking man in orange hi-viz striding purposely towards us, it turns out that there was a dog and bike race being held and we had strayed onto the track, it involved either teams of 4 dogs or a single dog pulling along a rider on a bike at great speed, they appeared to be greyhound type dogs, now we knew what the tape was for.
He had radioed to the previous steward to hold the racers at the last checkpoint while he directed us safely off the track, no sooner had we got round the tape on the next corner than the first single dog and bike came hurtling towards us and round the corner, both Ronnie and Em spun and tried to leg it but we managed to stop them and turned to let them stand and watch the next few racers. The race track had been set up in a large square with tracks crossing the middle of the square and we were now in the middle of it, so although we were off the race tack. to get clear of it we had to cross it again twice, we approached both crossing with caution and let the ponies stand and watch the racers whizzing past on both sides of the crossing before carrying on. Having got over the shock of the first one both ponies now stood and watched with interest.
Once clear of it all we had a lovely ride, when we first went round the tape we rode some distance along the race track and were so luck just to have happened to have hit it at the time when there was a lull between the teams and the singles races, I dread to think what would have happened if we had been 5 min earlier and had met cyclists being pulled by 4 dogs hurtling down the track towards us, it just doesn't bear thinking about.
I was very pleased with the way Em handled herself as although she spun at first she calmed down very quickly and calmly watched with great interest following the racers with her head as they stormed past her.
I wonder if she told Connie all about her adventures when she got home, I can just imagine her saying "you'll never guess what we saw in the forest today"
