Paul

I started having riding lessons as a teenager; a surprise birthday gift from my mother (£3 per hour!). At that time, I was mostly into hacking, with the odd gymkhana thrown in for fun. Occasionally I went for hacks with a local farmer on their very nice horses – which meant we could do a lot of fast canters across nice open stubble fields without worrying about it. At university I continued to ride for a couple of years, until the third year when I had to stop due to the work load. I didn’t ride for quite a few years, apart from the odd hack or lesson now and then. It was only after moving to Wales in the mid-90s that I took up riding again and had regular private lessons. On moving to London in 2000, I again stopped until I accidentally stumbled across the Lee Valley Riding Centre. Up until that point, riding had consisted mainly of walk, trot and canter; lateral work was something new. For a couple of years, I had lessons with Hillary, but started to get a very frustrated. One day I was persuaded by Janet, our treasurer, to do my first quadrille with Linda. After that everything changed, I swapped to Linda’s lessons and my riding horizon opened; I progressed! I joined the Riding Club (RC) and I started to learn lots more about riding. After about a year, I became a secretary of the RC, and was in the role for about 10 years. Through the RC, I started to ride at Pen Llyn on school masters, also at Alcainca in Portugal and with Quendon Dressage. Riding school masters has really changed my riding and has given me a much better understanding of the horse – rider interaction, but it has also shown me how much more I need to learn…..