Exmoor Falconry Centre, Somerset

Mummy: ‘Did you do anything good today Lillie?’
Lil: ‘I had chips!’
Mummy: ‘Didn’t you go on a horsey?’
Lil: ‘Yes. AND I had chips!’

When your beloved offspring, or indeed your beloved offspring’s offspring decide that they would like to be a world champion formula one racing driver you don’t start them off in a Maclaren - that would be stupid; and very expensive; and they would probably crash.
Lewis Hamilton started off on something much slower, far more stable and with a very low centre of gravity, a go-kart.

And so when Lillie finally decided that she was going to become an equestrian champion during her visit to The Granwas’ house in deepest Exmoor we thought that there was little likelihood that she could control a thoroughbred show jumper and decided, therefore that she should start on something smaller, slower and with a lower centre of gravity. A Shetland Pony.
Lillie’s visit was quite short and in true Exmoor fashion it rained. In fact it rained pretty much non-stop for the three days of her visit. So the open-top bus trip to Lynmouth via Porlock Hill (wow!!) was binned, as was the visit to the beach, and pretty much everything else that required us to venture outside.
But horse riding was a mission that had to be accomplished and so, in a brief (ish) bright spell, Little Granwa (why are we called Big and Little Granwa? It’s a long and boring story, and I can’t be bothered to tell it!) phoned the Exmoor Falconry Centre just down the road in beautiful Bossington to arrange a ride for Lillie on one of their ponies.

Twenty minutes later Lillie was perched on the back of a spherical but well balanced (it had a leg at each corner) Shetland Pony called Dula, wearing an improbably large riding hat and looking very much like something out of a Thelwell book.

Fifteen quid got Lillie a half hour led ride from the Centre through Bossington and back again and she enjoyed every single minute of it, unlike her mum who did something similar some twenty five years earlier and fell off – but she wasn’t on a Shetland Pony*.

So if your child wants to be Lewis Hamilton get a go-kart, if you want to be a famous horsey-type person (Zara Phillips rather than Jordan perhaps - Mummy) get on a Shetland pony. And if you’re in the West Somerset, Exmoor area and fancy equestrian go-karting visit the Exmoor Falconry Centre. They have birds too…and alpacas and larger ponies and very nice teas. In fact it’s a very nice place to spend a couple of hours.

Big Granwa x

For more information see www.exmoorfalconry.co.uk

*Mummy would like to point out that when she fell off a horse it was a GIANT. A SHIRE HORSE no less (possibly, big anyway) and that she hurt her bottom on a sharp stone when she fell. In front of everyone. At a gymkhana. Big Granwa didn’t even make up for it by buying her a more reasonably sized pony.