In the Saddle: Flying high after injury

She injured it some months ago at her school during athletics and it has completely ruined her year as she's such an active girl.

We have been unable to join pony club and she's had to have a break from riding and tae kwondo lessons and it has been tough for her watch her friends progress and win awards in both of these areas.

She's not been able to take part in sports day either where she is one of the school's top performers and consistent winners of her year.

We've competed at the Epworth Show for years and this year saw her miss out on the first one since she got her first pony. It's been frustrating for us all, not just Alyssia, but we seem to finally be making progress.

We've slowly been building her knee up through small amounts of riding. Rising trot was off the agenda for months but it has perfected her sitting troy beautiful so every cloud and all that.

Recently she's beginning to canter and I've now no longer got to lift her on and off her pony which is brilliant. She hasn't fully been able to enjoy her new pony and soon we will have had her a year but for months she's only been hacked out. I'm so glad we skipped out the 13.2hh size and went for a 14.1hh pony instead.

I gave Alyssia a jump lesson at home this weekend figuring we would just start with a tiny cross pole and build both of them up to jumping a bit bigger as they got used to each other.

Mara, the pony, had other ideas. She decided she was out on a showjuming course and popped the jump as if she was clearing 80cm.

It's fantastic to finally see them both back on their feet and flying high together. I'm looking forward to their return to pony club next year and watching them both progress.

We will be so excited.