The last month seems to have absolutely flown by. It has been great to get out and about at last with the horses to some shows, even though I don’t feel they are quite ready to be competitive I find a day away really helps to settle their heads and gives plenty of homework!
As soon as the snow had finally all gone towards the middle of January, I headed off to Cormayeur in Northern Italy for a week’s skiing which was fantastic, if not slightly bad timing what with now having to get on with the horses. Nevertheless, it was great fun and a much needed break. I only had one serious crash where I hit my head again.. ( having already landed upside down in the sand off a rather exuberant youngster the previous week..) and realised why the majority of skiers were now wearing helmets. The team at home did a brilliant job keeping everyone ticking over so it was all systems go on return, with some added super glue for good measure.
Our first outing this month was over to the west country to Mark Smith’s yard for a night to ride and compete Fiddlewood for the first time this year as he was due to be coming back with me for the season. All was going perfectly to plan, and almost ahead of schedule until turning off the motorway, round the first roundabout, and then nothing.. the accelorator had gone and there was oil pouring out from the bottom of the truck.. not good.. thankfully we were only a mile from Mark’s so he kindly came out to tow us back to his yard with his lorry.. in the process, breaking his power steering cable..not good take two..The weekend did however get a little better when Mistral jumped super well for a 6th in the 1.05, and a 2nd in the newcomers. We ended up having to get a lift home with a horse transporter, and the lorry came back on a low loader.
The lorry all fixed, we headed off to SNEC on Sunday with Spike and Max who were both thoroughly over excited to be allowed out. I cant say that riding a fresh TB horse in a small indoor warm up with horses coming at you from all directions is much fun, but in the ring, Spike settled much better to jump a good DC in the 1.05 for an 8th place and the just the one down in the newcomers. Max and I had a slight rush of blood to the head in the 1.05 seeing some particularly impressive xc strides in the jump off (my ringside supporters and trainer were not overly amused when I came out) but it was great fun and he finished 4th… 2 in the top 8 out of a class of about 40.. I though we did well to keep the eventers side up! He also just had the one down in the newcomers, but fitness and concentration is still a little wayward at he moment so plenty to work on at home.
Caring Cevaert was here for dressage lessons this morning and is now booked in weekly until the start of the season. We had some good sessions but sometimes I felt like it was like riding an untuned radio on Jerry, you know there is good reception there somewhere but it all just still felt a bit fuzzy. It really has been monumentally frustrating with their lack of progress this winter. I know there will be plenty of people and horses in the some boat this spring, but there is little we can do about it now except not to rush or force things to happen too quickly.
Mum has gone away on her holidays now, so we are flat out at the yard, 12 in and lots going on. We are looking forward to a xc schooling day with Ian Stark at Floors on Thursday and then our Hunt Ball on Sat.
The following week sees a full weekend jumping at Kingsbarn and hopefully some more xc schooling slotted in as the first event at Gatcombe and the start of the silly season looms ever nearer. Entries for Jerry, Max, Spike and Noel are in, I don’t know where time is going to at the mo….