Natural Jockey

Last week and the ensuing weekend were pretty good all in all. My meetings in Budapest, Frankfurt, Zurich and Paris all went well. However the highlight of the last 10 days was most definitely Maxime’s first ride on a pony. In an effort to avoid becoming a short sighted and over excited parent, I will resist saying that he was a natural and that the Doris the pony even seemed to enjoy the outing. That said, despite Sandie’s over protective fears that the whole thing would end in disaster when Maxime would no doubt refuse to get in the saddle citing an irrational fear of the fury beast, he did actually seem to both enjoy it and be quite good at it. Competitive Dad (that’s me) even thought it would be a good idea to try a bit of trotting towards the end of the 30 minute ramble in the woods. Maxime thought this was hilarious and subsequently insisted that we had to return to the stables in “second gear” all the way. His smiling chubby little face bouncing up and down was a sight to behold. Seeing Sandie trying to keep up behind and being slightly more red faced than Maxime, was also rather amusing. It was a nice family moment.