Hello Polly!

The second day of pony trekking began with a lovely breakfast made and served by Olive (the lady who ran the place). I had cereal, tea, toast and jam, and eggs. I opted out of the sausage, bacon, and beans since i would probably not be able to stomach that while riding a pony all day. We went back upstairs after breakfast, i put about 8 shirts on, then walked outside to wait for the beginning of our pony trekking tutorial. Olive gave us helmets, then began her lesson about ponies and trekking. In about 15 minutes she gave us all the important information we needed and apparently taught us how to post while trotting (Right. Because that is all the teaching you need. Ha). After her lesson, she asked us to line up by experience :first asking who had ridden 3 years or more; then two years or more; then one. All the rest of us were considered beginners. Which i am, since the last time i took riding lessons was when i was ten and i had not yet realised that you could kick a horse to make it go faster and it wouldn't get hurt. This was a big concern of mine in riding lessons. The teacher told me to kick it "like a beach ball" and i refused, thus halting the progress of my lessons. Since lessons, i have only ridden a few times, and though i have been around horses, i don't particularly know how to ride them as you will soon find out...

Anyway, so the beginners were instructed to line up in order of height. I do the usual: walk directly to the back of the line and wait for others to fill in. I am tall, you see. So i was the last to get my pony assignment and my saddle; therefore i was left with the slowish, friendly, pony for tall people. This pony is known as Polly. Polly the Pony, if you will. For the rest of the trip i kept quoting the Monty Python's Flying Circus dead parrot sketch since that parrot was named Polly. When Polly refused to trot, I would try yelling things like "Hello Pollllyyy! Polly Pony! I've got a nice cuttlefish for you!." It did not work, for alas, ponies don't eat fish. Polly was a lovely pony though. I had to put her saddle on, which was easy enough; however, i did not realise that it would have been a good idea to check if i could lower the stirrups... Therefore, when i went to swing myself over her, i wound up standing pretty much on her back before lowering myself over again. Then when i sat there waiting for the people to come by and fix it, i was in a nice uncomfortable squatting/kneeling position with my legs bent about as much as they could be. Olive came over, commented on how a midget must have rode this pony last, and lowered the stirrups about 2 feet. I am pretty sure that is not an exaggeration. This , as you may guess, was decidely much more comfortable.

We began our trek, which would lead us to the heritage center (where we walked to yesterday) and back up to the farmhouse by means of a scenic winding path. They had us lined up single file, with Polly behind William, her pony boyfriend. These lines often did not stay the same though, because when we stopped many people did not keep their ponies in line, and eventually William and Polly were split up. Sigh. Polly was good at staying in line, but she really did not like to trot unless there was a good distance between her and horse in front of her. This is understandable. I suppose she figured, why trot if i can catch up by walking? So i allowed her to catch up by walking a bit faster; we had an understanding between us. I did trot a few times on the first day, as did everyone. We passed by a Neolithic burial site that has been there for many many years, and we also passed by some sort of old cave. We did not really have time to stop and explore or take photos, because it made the guides nervous if we were taking photos and not paying full attention to the horse. Unfortunately, sometimes there is not much you can do in certain situations, so when one girls horse stumbled a bit about an hour into the ride, she bounced right off. She wound up being fine, but her name was Stacey, which caused a lot of confusion and concern from my friends who were at the front of the line. She got back on, but did not ride the second day. Another girl would fall later on in the day, though she more slid off then fell. She was also fine, but did not ride the second day, since the second day was apparently optional? Who would not ride a pony if they had the chance? About 6 people in our party of 20, thats who. Wierdos.

So yes, we trekked through the woods, up and down hills, and to the Gower Center. We left the ponies in the paddock, ate some lunch, and then hopped back on in order to reach our next destination: the beach. I was a bit nervous walking down the steep rocky path with Polly, because although she is a wonderful pony, she slipped a bit here and there. It was so beautiful at the beach. Perfect weather, ponies, and beaches. The perfect combination. We walked on a side of the beach that we had not been on the previous day and i saw a labyrinth made with rocks on the sand. A labyrinth is not actually a maze, but rather this common design with one path that leads to the center. I was not able to take a photo of it, but i will try to include a photo of the labyrinth design. This pleased me greatly because i am obsessed with labyrinths and hedge mazes. They made our ponies splash through the water of tide pools, which was very fun, except for the people who had thirsty ponies. We made our way back and wound up trekking on this path that was surrounded by electrical fencing. Right. That was a bit scary. Falling off would be death. But everyone made it through unsinged.

When we arrived back at the farmhouse, we took off the saddle and held the ponies until everyone was ready. Then we were instructed to push theird heads a bit to the side so that they would know to walk away. I did this a few times, but my pony did not leave. We were friends now i guess. So i felt bad trying to tell her to go away and one of the guides wound up leading her away. I like to think Polly and i were friends, but i think she just likes everyone. She's a good pony.

We showered off some of the horse smell (ah how familair) and went downstairs for a delcious porkchop dinner. Dessert was rhubarb crumble..not sure how i felt about that.. Rhubarb is ...interesting? The crumble part was still yummy, but i did not eat much of the rhubarb.

Olive had apparently helped arrange for a bus to take us into a seaside town called "Mumbles" which was about a half hour away. I think there was some confusion with the bus driver because we stopped in the middle of the street in front of a grocery store named Mumbles. Huh. Right. So we get out and the trip leader person says we were supposed to be going to the boardwalk and such, and the bus driver says something to the effect of : "Oh thats six miles that way (*points*) . haveagoodtimeBYE" . And so he leaves. So our choices are : go to a pub, an arcade, or a pub. I wanted to go the arcade and the pub, but we wound up just going to a pub with some interesting drunk loud Welsh people. It was pretty fun though. They were excited because we were Americans and seeing as it is a small town I bet they don't see many travellers. So they let us have some free drinks and they programmed the jukebox so that it was free...though my Bowie songs never played... It got a lot more crowded later on, and we eventually left around 10:30 because thats when the bus came.

Back at my future farmhouse home, i played with Sharp the farmdog for a bit, then drank some tea, read and went to sleep after a bit of a dramatic encounter with a spider my friend killed. What a hero. We all made it through the rest of the night spiderless, and woke up again to our scrumptious breakfast. ..