Difficult to see with all the rain but the big sign says 'BADMINTON EVENT CANCELLED'
Unfortunately I am the sort of person who would never get anything done if it wasn’t for the last minute. So it took a(nother) e-mail reminder from Alison today to spur me into action to get this blog on the road! Hopefully we are away now though..
Life in England currently revolves around event cancellations. Will it run or won't it? Everything has been cancelled for the last two weeks but I am supposed to be eventing this Thursday at Aston-le-Walls. The show has five days of classes, starting on Tuesday, or at least it was supposed to start on Tuesday but it was cancelled! They are hoping to run the event from Wednesday on if they can but after rain all night again last night I would rate the chances as even at best. So far I haven’t been too badly affected by the cancellations but if I don’t get to run this week I will be getting a little stressed as it is only 11 weeks until the ‘big event’ and Blue (Orient Express) hasn’t had a start yet!
Blue is in great form though and he feels like he is right on track for my main selection event, the CIC*** at Bramham in the north of England in about four weeks. I am very lucky to have my trainer Vaughn Jefferis in England to help me to prepare Blue for this event, thanks to fantastic support from the High Performance Programme. Vaughn has really stepped up my training programme since he arrived last week and I now have a million dressage competitions coming up in the next few months. Joy. No pain no gain though, right?
Before Bramham we have Tattersalls Three Day Event in Ireland to look forward to. This is rumoured to be a real fun event and we are travelling with Alice Montgomery and Chris Burton as well as my super-groom Lydia Beales in ‘Patsy’ my lorry/truck (depending on which side of the world you live on!). Lydia is concerned that Patsy won't be able to fit all the gear that comes with five horses and three separate riders, which is probably a valid concern, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.
Regal Romar competing in the open novice at Gatcombe
I am taking Ronnie (Regal Romar, owned by Richard and Natacha Otto and us) for the 2star and Al (Call Me Al, owned by Heather and Alan Cato) for the 1star and am hoping for big things. Ronnie is finally feeling himself again after being knocked for six from his journey to England. People say it can take them a year to really feel themselves again and this has certainly been the case with him. He has had three novice starts so far this season just to ease him back into it quietly and has jumped double clear at each one. We are still negotiating the dressage.
Last month I was lucky enough to be invited to tour the Prestige Italia Factory in Vincenza, Italy. I have had amazing support from Laurence O’Toole and Stephanie Liefting from Prestige Equestrian NZ (the NZ importer of Prestige Italia gear) for a number of years and more recently Prestige Italia the parent company has come on board too. Vincenza is about an hour outside the famous city of Venice so I took the opportunity to visit for a couple of days with my Uncle Will and his partner Megan. I had promised myself at the end of last year to make more of an effort to do some tourist stuff while I was living in Europe.
Outside the Basilica in St Marks Square Venice
What an amazing city! And the factory was incredible too. Seriously high quality from the design to the computer aided precision cutting of the hides. Very impressive. The hospitality was great as well and I was shown around (for a day and a half) by the very busy designer of the Prestige saddles, Roberto Rasiar.
Anyway, I had better go. Off to a local jumping show today which will be Blue’s first outing for the year. Hope he behaves himself and if he doesn't I can always take refuge at our new local pub (pictured below) which is only 100m down the road from our house!
‘till next time!
Clarke
