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Scott in Sport: Riding
Sunday 6th June, 1.35pm, meet at Market Square.
Unfortunately after such a beautiful spell of Yorkshire weather we seemed to have found the one day that it was horrible! There were meant to be three of us hacking from 4-5pm at Borrowby Equestrian Centre, which is on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors near Whitby. We were set to meet with plenty of time to spare, but after waiting for 25 minutes there were still only two of us. As time was ticking on, we unfortunately had to hit the road and go with two. It turned out later that the other girl was ill so wasn’t able to come.
Before we set off, we looked Borrowby up on the map and found another Borrowby near Thirsk, so I was very glad we had the full address and checked it, because without the joys of a sat-nav, I was almost on the road to Thirsk and I could have seen me driving us to the wrong Borrowby and missing our ride!
Our journey was thankfully uneventful, although rather miserable in the rain, mist and fog. We found the Equestrian Centre without difficulty and with 40 minutes to spare. We filled in our forms with our details and riding ability and watched a girl having a lesson as we waited for our hack to begin and hoped that the rain would ease off.
Due to the misty, wet weather, we were given high vis jackets to wear on top of our semi-sodden rain coats so we would be easily spotted by cars for the bit of the ride we spent on the roads. As can be expected, the jackets were pretty sexy!
I was then introduced to my steed for the ride: Jim. He was about 15 hands (the height of a horse, measured from the ground to their withers (shoulders) – a hand is 4 inches), dark brown and quite cob-by in appearance (a bit sturdy!). I hopped on and we were off.
There were four of us riding – the two of us from York and two ladies from the Equestrian Centre being our guides. We started off with a bit of a walk along the road, before going through a gate and onto a bridleway in a field on the moors. Jim was very well natured and we got on well, which is always a nice way to be with your horse when you’re out for a ride!
The foggy weather made the moors seem so bleak and desolate. It really seemed like we were the only four people in the world, surrounded by heather, young ferns and hearing the occasional bleating of a sheep. I kept half expecting to see Heathcliffe strolling right out of the pages of Wuthering Heights.
We walked and trotted quite a bit before splitting into two pairs. One of the guides and I went off and she told me that you could normally see the sea from where we were, where in fact we could barely see the ends of our own noses. We skirted round a bog, before having a good canter. Then we reunited with the others (who hadn’t cantered) and headed back to the Equestrian Centre all too soon. We paid the £12.60 for the hack and agreed it was certainly money well spent. The hour really seemed to fly by and it wasn’t long before we were heading back to York.
Going for a hack with just one other person from York didn’t really give me a feel for how the club works and I didn’t have the chance to quiz some poor committee member about everything they offered, but I thoroughly enjoyed what we did and found the trip organiser incredibly helpful and kind, even sending an email that evening thanking the drivers (two other groups had gone there earlier on that day) and asking how we got on. I wish I had a chance to do more things with the Riding Club as the day really made me miss horses!
Sadly, this is the last visit to a Club that I made in the year, so I’m afraid, Scott in Sport shall be no more. Thank you for reading these and I hope you have enjoyed reading them almost as much as I have enjoyed trying out some of our clubs. If any of these blogs has awakened an interest in you to try something a little bit different, I hope you have braved the unknown, got in touch with the club and tried it out!
For the final Scott in Sport,
Emily xo
