22 May 2014

Today we started off with a horse ride for me.  I found a brochure advertising riding "heavy horses" which are horses like Clydesdales and others. They take people out on "hacking" rides which we call trail rides. After a lot of emailing back and forth, it was finally booked!

We drove to the stable

- taken by Mom

and I got started on my two-hour ride. The horse I was to ride is called "Dingle"

- taken by Mom

and has gotten first at shows in the past. He is very smart but a bit cheeky. He is supposedly just under 17 hands but looks much taller. The leader was Linda and there were no other riders on this ride.

Linda introduces me to Dingle - taken by Mom

Mounted on Dingle, ready to go - taken by Mom

The ride was beautiful and cool as there were spits and spots of rain. First was just going along at a walk which Dingle was not very impressed with. Then came a trot which went well. Then I tried a canter alone which didn’t work well. When he had to follow the other horse, he went into a canter just fine. The rest of the ride was a bit of each gate. Dingle did exceptionally well with his canter and even went into a brief gallop when I was allowed to hold (not use) the "stick," i.e. the crop or whip.

- taken by Linda

The ride went along the edges of fields and through streams. It was fantastic!

While I was riding, Mom drove down to the beech and had a look around. She enjoyed taking lots of pictures including of another horse ride from the same stable.

- taken by Mom

- taken by Mom

- taken by Mom

- taken by Mom

- taken by Mom

After the ride, we drove over to Ullswater where we intended to take a steamer boat ride that was offering a half price fair for riding the La’al Ratty several days ago. Our landlord heard we were going that way and recommended a hotel and restaurant on the lake that has severed prime ministers in the past such as Margaret Thatcher. When we arrived in the area, we were pretty hungry, so we went to the hotel, Sharrow Bay,

first and had a leisurely "tea and cake" which was actually cappuccino and scones or cake.

Mom's tea - taken by Mom

Liesel's tea

 

view from the lounge window - taken by Mom



the lounge - taken by Mom

sitting room - taken by Mom

another lounge - taken by Mom

By the time we finished, it was getting late and we missed the last sailing of the steamer. As we drove on, we came to Castlerigg Stone Circle which is an ancient site where people lived and met.

- taken by Mom

- taken by Mom

Then we drove on to Keswick where we could park near a garden and then walk down to Derwent Water. It was a little hard to find the way to the lake, but once we did, it was a lovely walk. We parked near some pretty Victorian houses.
We walked down to the lake first,

- taken by Mom

- taken by Mom

- taken by Mom

then we also went through the gardens which were lovely.

- taken by Mom

- taken by Mom

The last stop on the way home was to find Wordsworth’s grave. We were going to go by Grasmere on our way home, so we drove into the village, parked near the church,

and walked around the churchyard until we found the grave.

Then it was time to go home and eat supper as we were pretty tired and hungry by that point!

Left overs! - taken by Mom