Yesterday's Preston indoor ponyplay day

Posted by Tanos on Sun 24 May 09, 10:43 PM

Tags: gear, openairbdsm

The date of the long-planned Preston indoor ponyplay day finally arrived yesterday. It was one of the best times I've ever had at a BDSM event, and a credit to everyone who took part or helped out, and to LadyPandoraCP and sparky1 who organised it

The venue was a former factory or warehouse, with room for three 50m straight tracks for sprinting, a circuit of more than double that distance, and space for a corral (!), training wheel, lunge ring and for people milling around and pony carts parked up. More than 30 people took part, with about a dozen carts, including several that sparky1 has been building for the past couple of months and having plenty to go round was a great idea.

The day started with the tracks being marked out and a few other finishing touches. Once this was done, the people who had brought their own carts started bringing them in and putting them together. I'd brought my Glider cart made of bicycle wheels and sections of steel tubing which fit in a length of 4inch diameter PVC pipe. The picture was taken at Bridgewood earlier this month, but apart from a replacement fabric seat and a 3-part foot rest that goes in the PVC pipe too, it's the same design.

Elle had rather bravely volunteered to act as my pony earlier this month, and we had a warm up with long reins before trying the cart. This was my first experience of doing pony cart play properly rather than just testing the cart out indoors or at Bridgewood, and it is very very cool. Rather like that first time you manage to ride a bike.

We had a few sessions of going up and down the straight tracks, and round the circuit, with rests and breaks. Elle did a great job of keeping up with all this, that amounted to an afternoon spent walking and jogging ("trotting") even though her new boots did start to hurt and were getting pretty bad by the time we stopped.

I was very pleased by the way the Glider cart stood up to being used "for real". At a bit under 10kg, I think it was the lightest one there and I was slightly apprehensive that it might buckle. However, when I eventually came to take it to pieces none of the tubes showed any signs of starting to bend. (It is made out of triangles after all though.)

At the end of the day there were a series of races: sprints in the three lanes, timed circuits round the circular track, and an obstacle race done with the ponies led on reins.

One of the things I love about very visual events is being immersed in the atmosphere they create, and the most striking view was one point when I looked across the sprinting tracks where ponies and carts were running up and down in the foreground, towards the training wheel where four ponies were going round and round practicing their gait.

So, a big thankyou to LadyPandoraCP and sparky1 for organising it, and everyone else who took part or helped out, and above all to Elle for working so hard while I sat on the cart watching the world go past

Edited Sun 24 May 09, 10:51 PM by Tanos

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