Dark December riding lesson
A few blogs ago I mentioned L's much-longed-for first riding lesson, she was 13 and it was a dream come true for her that she was being given the opportunity to learn to ride.
I had booked the last lesson of the day at the riding school, so I could take her after work on a Tuesday. It was a dark December evening and L was over the moon with excitement and nervousness.
We had already bought a riding hat and jodhpur boots, and L got into our car clutching the hat excitedly on her knees. The riding school is 25 minutes away, but because I hadn't driven the route for a long time, and I wasn't sure what admin we would need to complete upon arrival at the school, I decided to leave 45 minutes ahead of the booking time.
We were all smiles at the outset of our journey and we dashed through our little town and out onto the country roads towards the riding school. There's really only one major road in and out of A_____ and it's a nice, fast dual carriageway, but, oh dear, as we joined it the cars were completely backed up over a mile and a half outside A_____.
"Not to worry," I told L, "It's probably just a bit of rush hour traffic and we've given ourselves plenty of time."
We continued to chat eagerly about horses and how great it was that L was really, truly going to have riding lessons, but I could see the time ticking away and the traffic was just not moving.
We sat…and sat…and sat.
About 20 minutes before the lesson was about to start I rang the school and the cheery instructor told us not to worry and that it would be okay if we were a few minutes late.
Five minutes after the booking time, and still a long, long way away I rang again. The instructor was sorry, but the school would need to close soon. My heart fell and I could see from L's forlorn face that she was heartbroken. She was still clutching her riding hat on her knees and I've never seen anything sadder.
At the earliest opportunity, and an hour and a half after setting off, we managed to turn the car round to go home. I was gutted.
It turns out that a sequence of accidents on the roundabouts around A_____ completely snarled the whole area up and we were just caught in an unfortunate traffic jam. The following week, we were at the school 25 minutes early and L's lesson was brilliant.
She hasn't looked back.
Photo © J Venn
I had booked the last lesson of the day at the riding school, so I could take her after work on a Tuesday. It was a dark December evening and L was over the moon with excitement and nervousness.We had already bought a riding hat and jodhpur boots, and L got into our car clutching the hat excitedly on her knees. The riding school is 25 minutes away, but because I hadn't driven the route for a long time, and I wasn't sure what admin we would need to complete upon arrival at the school, I decided to leave 45 minutes ahead of the booking time.
We were all smiles at the outset of our journey and we dashed through our little town and out onto the country roads towards the riding school. There's really only one major road in and out of A_____ and it's a nice, fast dual carriageway, but, oh dear, as we joined it the cars were completely backed up over a mile and a half outside A_____.
"Not to worry," I told L, "It's probably just a bit of rush hour traffic and we've given ourselves plenty of time."
We continued to chat eagerly about horses and how great it was that L was really, truly going to have riding lessons, but I could see the time ticking away and the traffic was just not moving.
We sat…and sat…and sat.
About 20 minutes before the lesson was about to start I rang the school and the cheery instructor told us not to worry and that it would be okay if we were a few minutes late.
Five minutes after the booking time, and still a long, long way away I rang again. The instructor was sorry, but the school would need to close soon. My heart fell and I could see from L's forlorn face that she was heartbroken. She was still clutching her riding hat on her knees and I've never seen anything sadder.
At the earliest opportunity, and an hour and a half after setting off, we managed to turn the car round to go home. I was gutted.
It turns out that a sequence of accidents on the roundabouts around A_____ completely snarled the whole area up and we were just caught in an unfortunate traffic jam. The following week, we were at the school 25 minutes early and L's lesson was brilliant.
She hasn't looked back.
Photo © J Venn
Labels: jodhpur boots, learn to ride, lesson, riding hat, school
posted by Fuse | 4:15 PM
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