Of course I'm a cowboy!

D'ya think I just found these spurs? Spurs? Eeeek.

For your information, I was looking up quotations about spurs, and apart from the sage advice 'Don't squat when you're wearing them' - everything seemed to be about a well-known north London football club and - sorry, nephew Jez and sons' friend Dustin - I'm not sullying my blog with any mention of THAT team.

Yes...spurs. Caroline the Cowboy.

(Blimey - you should see some of the images that come up if you Google cowgirl! I can assure you it would be most uncomfortable riding a horse in that sort of scanty attire...)

Yes...spurs. (Again)

Alfie has been going quite beautifully in the sand school ON HIS OWN (I mean, on his own with me riding him, not ENTIRELY on his own!) There's a dressage competition next week which, foolishly, I thought I might enter on both Poppy and Alfie, though not simultaneously.

With this in mind, on Saturday, after a good gallop on Ashdown Forest, we stopped off at said sand school where there were a number of other horses and riders practising.

Did Alfie go beautifully? Nope. He didn't go AT ALL. He didn't go when I spoke to him nicely. He didn't go when I kicked him politely. He didn't go when I slapped him smartly on the rear with the riding crop. He didn't go when I kicked him, slapped him and spoke to him less nicely all at the same time.

Hence - the spurs. NOT cowboy spurs. In fact, hardly spurs at all.

Did they work, this morning? I'm not sure really...we were on our own in the sand school. They didn't work when he refused to go past a gateway on the road but then, I was a little worried about using them forcefully what with passing traffic and so on.

I'm in two minds about whether or not using spurs is admitting defeat...or just being economical with my energy, time and stress levels!