After getting a good night sleep and a full breakfast this morning we were ready to head out for our first ride. There was a total of 8 of us riding today which included Lucy who is here from France and Beth who has been here for four years. Paul who is the one in charge of the horses worked with Beth and Lucy to pick out horses for everyone. The girls who rode yesterday I believe kept the same horses for the most part with only a few changes. We headed down to the barn to go catch our horses from the field. After changing into wellys in case the horses were on the other side of the river (which they ended up not being) armed with our halters we headed off. I was given Caraid a mare who I found lying down taking a nap when we entered the field. Once we had all of our horses we headed back for the yard to tack up and get ready to head out. There were a few changes of horses once we pulled them in from the field. Cobweb a cute little dun pony had a sore back so he was changed out for Charlie. We gathered our tack and Paul came by to inspect the horses while giving a spelling lesson to his son Nye who is 4 1/2 and reminds me of my nephew Gavin. Nye was learning important words. After riding comes chocolate. Good words to live by. We mounted up and headed out on the trails. My mare was a typical mare and would kick so I had to stay at the back with Lucy. Well Cariad might be Welsh for lovely darling but I had other choice words for what it might mean. I renamed her Beast. I would have called her other things but I wanted to be polite. She was a beast though. Rearing up, trying to bolt, being generally stupid. My riding skills were tested on her. I held my own and was showing her who was boss but she was still being a shit. I don't like horses that rear up. Bucking is bad but rearing is just unnecessary especially when the tree branches are quite low. Just when I thought we had come to an understanding she would be a jerk again. My knee although it was in a brace was not appreciating Cariad being stupid. We stopped for lunch not very exciting but it was food. Lucy and I decided to switch horses for the afternoon. She was riding Seren which means Star in welsh. Seren was a younger horse who was well behaved but she would get startled and spook at things. Sounded better than Beast who was trying to kill me on my first day. Seren was good and didn't have to be in the back like Beast so I enjoyed being in the lead. She was a very good girl and decided that she was going to be brave in the afternoon. We headed up into the mountains through the braken which is big ferns. Beth who was recovering from attending a wedding the night before swapped for Beven who is the cutest little chunky pony. They took a detour of into the braken at one point and completely disappeared. Seren did well in front and had a nice gate on her. When we cantered which was more of a gallop/jumping and leaping she was a good girl. The beast was still being awful and Lucy had one hell of a ride home. The landscape was breath taking. I didn't bring my camera and glad I didn't cause Beast would have broken it. I have to figure out something for tomorrow cause it's so lovely. We saw a wild pony and foal today on the mountain. We made it home and said good-bye to three of the girls who were just here for the weekend. After dinner I went to find the ponies but only found a few Ellie came to say hello and the naughty ponies who don't go out with the herd said hello. A few of the horses live in the barn Seren who is hard to catch and some of the younger horses. Julius who is a nice looking horse is in solitary confinement because he got caught trying to shag (have sex with) some of the mares in the field even though he has been gelded. Naughty Julius.

My pillow is calling me. Lets see if I can rig my camera tomorrow and hopefully I'll have pictures of the beautiful countryside to share with you.