TRIAL RIDE & PUB LUNCH BRAMPTON 23rd May 2009

 

After a lot of confusion, telephone conversations and passing of emails the Trial Ride was finally under way. What Trial Ride? The one around Brampton stopping for lunch at the grand "Broomhill Hotel" then tacking back up to continue our ride.. Wanna know more.. Read on.
Waking up to a glorious sunny day just perfect for a ride out I set off to the field to see if Kyle will let me catch him. I arrive and quickly Kyle has me thinking, it looks like I am gonna be taking Spike. However Kyle comes and soon we are loaded up and on our way to Katie Clare's house where we are all meeting. Just as well as Katie knows how to get to the hotel, I haven't any idea at all.
Anyway who is "All", there is Katie and her daughter Jody, Kim and myself. Jenny was gonna come but phoned to say she had a bad migraine. Ouch!.. So with only 4 of us (which turned out well for the first ride out, will explain later) we set off more or less on time.

The horses were great as was Kyle though he was strong and every time we trotted or cantered he wanted to go that extra pace and he's a strong little fella with determination. The ride took us through many bridleways with so much beautiful scenery. We couldn't have asked for a better day. Chatting away, taking photo's and basically having a trouble and stress free ride, even Kim's horse who bucked and pranced on the Canter for a Cure ride was a lot more settled (sorry Kim I forget your horses name).
Arriving at the Hotel at 12 o'clock we posed (as you do) with our horses for. you guessed it, more photo's, and why not a great memory of a great day. We took our horses around to the stable yard which luckily Katie had gone previously and cleared out two stables and Kim cleared a third. The stables hadn't been used for approx a year and therefore used as storage for all sorts of odds and ends. However they were good enough for the horses while we ate, spacious and more importantly safe.
Again with the special kind thought of Katie we had haynets and enough buckets to give the horses water. For a first ride having three stables vacant an somewhere for Buddy (Katie's horse) was adequate but the manager assured me that next time they'd be more prepared and make sure the facilities are better cleaned out and the paddock would be readily available for those needing it.

Lunch. okay we went into the hotel and cleaned up and ordered some drinks, our meal wasn't booked till 1pm but as we'd arrived early and the place was vacant apart from one couple they started on our courses straight away. We took our drinks and decided to sit outside in the sun with a lovely view in front of us. More chat and photos followed and a second round of drinks, finally we were called and we went inside to eat our meal. What a meal, I had Fish and chips but the fish wasn't the usual thick battered cod, instead I got two thick tender pieces of cod covered in a light batter which was absolutely gorgeous, even the chips were cooked with a lovely taste, Kim had Scampi, Katie had Mushroom Stroganoff and Jody had Cod Goujons.
Would we like dessert, oh the thought of it melted my taste buds but the meal itself filled me so I settled for a coffee as did Kim and Katie, Joy had a dessert of different flavoured ice cream.

Letting our meal digest we chatted a little longer and then went to check our horses, they were quite settled though I think Kyle thought he'd been dumped as he'd not touched his water or hay. In fact it was only when I went into his stable that he decided to have a bite to eat. All the horses apart from Kyle had left a message so while the others cleaned up I just had to tack up and get ready to ride out. That was when we noticed that we'd been rested up for a few hours which were great.
So all fed and tacked up we set off to continue the rest of the ride which took us back to Katie's. Katie took us a different way back which was great as it was a change of scenery with a few trot and canter stretches. The ride back seemed quicker for some reason but getting back I kinda flopped off Kyle, untacked and loaded him into his trailer. I went round and thanked Katie for everything and said goodbye to Jody and Kim.

CONCLUSION

Broomhill Hotel - beautiful inside and out, excellent facilities, smiling friendly staff. 1st class food

The ride - absolutely fantastic, perfect weather, great people and horses, scenic and even car drivers were courteous.

The Next Trial ride around Brampton will be on the 11th July, do come and join us