The bonfire at Denman was a definite high
Since my last blog, we (John, Laura who is 16 months old now, me and Astro) made the long trek up to Denman. It took us around seven hours to get there. Yep – a long way to go, but there’s no point having a horse if you’re not going to ride it! And given I’m still riding during what has been one of the coldest winters in Canberra in 39 years, I might as well have some fun to make all those mornings worth while.
The highs and lows of Denman in order of occurrence:
Long drive with a toddler – low.
Lovely venue – high.
Friendly committee – high.
Being in 13th place after dressage – whoop whoop – things are improving – maybe Berrima wasn’t a fluke! – high.
Stunning weather on Saturday (didn’t pack a T-shirt) – high – not to worry I can survive without a t-shirt.
Lovely hot bonfire with free wine and sausages – high.
HUGE party about 200m from our cabin that went until 6am on Sunday morning – gone are the days were this would fall into the high category!
Laura not sleeping for longer than 2 hours at a time during said party (makes for a rather grumpy Mummy) – low.
Weather threatening to pack it in as I rode cross country – low.
Walking back to the float after being eliminated – boo hoo – nothing like being complacent to bite you on the backside. Note to self, don’t be a jerk, ride like you HAVE to go clear or you can never ever have a cider again – take a guess …
Long long long drive home kicking yourself for being an idiot (with a toddler – wonderful) – low.
Lessons learnt
Pack properly (Laura had 5 tops and only 1 pair of trousers).
Don’t assume your horse wants to jump narrow brushes!
Never assume your horse will just jump - or you could be in for a long walk and drive home
Luckily, Sam Lyle had rung me before Denman to make enquires about schooling over our course. Lightbulb moment: Sam rides his horses first and I get a lesson afterwards (which I really needed after my performance at Denman!). Before you knew it, I was organising a cross country clinic, which filled up really quickly with 18 horses enjoying a lovely crisp Canberra day. The morning was so cold (minus 7) that Sam called me around 8am wondering when the ice in the water jump would melt. Answer – not in a hurry! Thankfully John was nearby and drove the Landcruiser through the water jump to break it up. When I had my lesson at about 2.30pm, there was still ice floating in the water – great incentive to stay on.
Laura reading all about the last Canberra event in The Eventer
Here in Canberra, we are really lucky that the local jump club puts on some great training and competition days. I went to one recently and went around the 1.10m course. I’m not sure if I was more thrilled with doing that or that I was wearing some jods I’ve had since 1998. I think it’s time to buy some new ones soon though, but I think I need boots first, mud is now oozing through the soles into my socks …. Anyone want to sponsor me?
Our next event is SIEC. Not sure how it’ll all go, Laura isn’t being the best of sleepers when I compete, so if you hear a crying baby in the cabins – that’s probably her – please forgive me! I’ve also got to find some confidence in the next five days, amazing how quickly you can lose it, so hopefully it turns up somewhere, but if you’ve got bucket loads, give me a call!
As you can see in this video clip Laura thinks every horse is Astro. If only she would be so keen on sleeping as she is on Astro!
