I've had my new pony for 3 months now and we're starting to get to know each other properly now. Because I have no one to ride with I hack out alone and he is fabulous in traffic etc. Today I thought I'd take him on the byway which runs past a livery yard. We had a canter and he was grear but as we got near the end a couple of the big horses came galloping over to see us. New boy got very very tense, was high blowing and snorting and doing a rather impressive piaffe with tail fully aloft! (Considering he's a 14th cob cross I was rather stunned by all this). Anyhow I had a dog walker in front of me and in order to get us past safely I got off and led my snorting beast by. I did get back on a bit further on but what I'm asking is did I do the wrong thing by getting off? How do you cope with this kind of high excitement when you're out alone? Any tips in case new boy decides to do his Valegto impresion again? Thank you