Oops, my blog is a bit late. It’s ok, I have an excuse – I was moving, eventing and building flat pack furniture!
Sir Percival (Percy) with his pigeon companion.
Starting with the most important bit – moving. I am one of those sad people who really likes order and organization, so moving for me is an unnaturally appealing experience. I like finding things I thought I had lost and I also like “rationalizing” which is the Wallace code for throwing away things you no longer need. Unfortunately, I am not nearly as talented as my mother at rationalizing so I still have a lot of stuff that I probably don’t need but am loathe to part with just in case some horse at some stage needs to go in that particular version of a bit that I’ve not used in at least 10 years.
Dan being very helpful and assisting with the sweeping
On the 27th of June I moved from Gloucestershire to East Sussex and on the 29th of June I took two horses to an event. I thought that was pretty good going and the event was a lovely one about 10 minutes down the road at Eridge. Wesley did some very nice circle trotting for a 33, had a pole down which was my fault and then ripped around the cross country – he’s like an overgrown pony to ride and so much fun. Barney the Irish pony also did good circles – going to dressage DID pay off – got a 34, jumped an immaculate double clear and I obviously had my knitting needles out, got 14 time faults and only managed to come 10th. It was a stunning day of eventing in the sunshine and we even got sunburnt!
Eventing in 30 degrees! Just like being at home
On the subject of sunshine – we have had the most epic weather for the last month in the UK, which has led me to discover that eventers are never happy. Now that it hasn’t rained for a month the ground is apparently too hard and it’s too hot to be eventing. Are you kidding me? It’s not raining, there’s no mud, and the temperature hasn’t dropped below 20 degrees for about 3 weeks now. What more could you ask for? I am well pleased with this weather development, which is apparently going to continue for at least another fortnight. Yippee!
Percy and Barney out on the canter hill
In the sunshine, I have moved into a cute wee house in Heathfield, which is about 15 minutes from the yard. I now have an entirely newfound talent for building flatpack furniture from pictorial instructions, and oddly enough, I really enjoy it. I’m not sure whether my dining table would withstand a proper party but nevertheless it looks the part and right now that’s much more important because I’ve not managed to have anyone over for dinner just yet because we are all far too busy eventing.
I built a dining set!
Gus had a run at Tweseldown in the BE100 Open, replacing Dan who decided he wanted a weekend off and helpfully had a fat leg, which miraculously disappeared on the Monday after the event. However Gus was a good stand in, did a great dressage test and a super relaxed double clear. I must say a huge huge thank you to the organisers who changed my times after we got stuck in the most enormous traffic jam and didn’t actually arrive at the venue until the time I was supposed to be doing dressage.
We wore the puppy out BEFORE we got to Tweseldown
Tweseldown was closely followed by Brightling where Gus did a blinder of a test in the Novice to get 75% and led by three marks, even with his daft rider making a course error and walking at A not F. Smack on the hand for me. Turns out I made the same mistake on Barney and the judge didn’t notice. It all went a bit downhill from there, Gus slipped on a turn cross country and skidded straight past 11b, and I went too slowly on Barney. They did actually jump nicely but it’s always a bit of a shame when the scoreboard doesn’t reflect it.
Gus hacking to dressage at Brightling
Then off I went Iping on Sunday – after I got across the narrowest bridge in the entire world in Doris – when I say narrow I mean narrow to the point of not fitting the truck across. I was panicking that I would get stuck and then saw that Burto had made it in his truck which is a metre longer than mine so thought I had better harden up! I was really lucky that Kirsty Cargill drove down from London to help me because it was fairly hot and though I had civilized times they were quite close together. She must’ve been good luck because Barney did a nice test, jumped a good double clear, yes I got time faults cross country BUT so did everyone else, and finished 5th.
We went cross country schooling, Rupert came to supervise!
Next up I am off to Chilham Castle where Wesley will make his international debut in the CIC*. I will need to remember to pack my bravery knickers because the fences look much bigger from the back of an overgrown pony and he tends to like to jump the height of the flags so really I’m not going CIC*, I’m going CIC***!
The future of eventing is in safe hands? Francis (Whittington) with his successor, Max, on Karis.
Until next time, happy eventing to you all.
Laura
