Amazingly this blog has managed to be on time (nearly) and actually contains news as opposed to: got up at silly o’clock, went to an event, did three phases in record time, came home, went to another event the next day. Whilst I could entertain you with a detailed account of how I managed to eliminate myself in the show jumping at Tweseldown a few weeks ago by missing a fence but jumping a clear round, I’m sure you’d rather hear about the other adventures in life.
Dad and I stayed in Blackpool on our way north to look at trucks. Here is the obligatory Blackpool Tower shot!
Most of you will know of my father, Glenn, also known to my friends as Daddy Wallace. He is a very organised person who likes to thoroughly research and discuss anything that we may venture into. Recently (about March actually) we decided that it was time for a truck upgrade – the current one doesn’t carry enough horses, and the living is lovely but also not really big enough.
So began the horse truck replacement project… do you build one or buy another second hand one? If you were to build one what chassis would you build it on, how many horses would you have, how would the living be designed, how much water would you carry … the list just goes on and on and on. Having built two trucks in New Zealand, family Wallace has a fair idea of what works and what doesn’t work, and as with everything, what works for one person won’t work for another!
The very beautiful Monk Fryston Hall where we stayed in Yorkshire.
After much deliberation I got an email from Mum – “I’m sending HIM to you for two weeks to deal with this”. Right then. Time to clear the schedule and start the adventure. In two weeks, dad and I drove approximately 3000 kilometres, saw about six different truck builders, had endless discussion of the pros and cons, ate what felt like hundreds of sandwiches from the multitude of British service stations and finally decided to buy a second hand truck built by Whittaker.
Introducing Doris
She’s been christened Doris and she is positively beautiful. I now can carry all the horses I own plus one more, and probably all my gear. I would like to point out, in my defense, that I KNOW I have heaps of gear, it’s because I refused to part with anything that I thought I could use and therefore have enough gear for about 14 eventers. I am also the world’s worst rug hoarder, enabled by my lovely mother, who likes everything to match. You can just imagine how well that combination works! Poor dad bought another bag of rugs from Australia when he came up, thankfully I think that’s the last of the gear that I left at home. It had better be.
In other news, I am moving! Lavender Hill has been a wonderful base for my first year of English eventing but at the end of June I am moving to East Sussex. Yes, that is basically the other side of England. I’m going to be based with Francis Whittington. Sound familiar? I bought my lovely Baz from him last year and he’s been helping me a great deal with getting to know him and his intricacies. We got talking at Houghton about making money by producing and selling young horses and so it has transpired that not only will I be based there, but Francis and I will work together on buying, producing and selling young horses. I am really excited and feel very privileged to have been given such a great opportunity. Hopefully by then end of the month I will have managed to pack up my mountain of belongings and shift without drama.
A very tired Wesley snoozes at the truck
On Sunday I decided that in lieu of going eventing, I would go to a dressage show and take Baz to practice some circle trotting. I entered one novice and one elementary thinking that they would be simple enough tests for me to remember in a short space of time. Turns out I’m a bit out of practice at the ‘proper’ dressage thing because the tests seemed to last for hours! However it didn’t faze the Irish pony who did some lovely work for a sixth in the Novice (including my first nine in an eternity) and a win in the elementary. Oddly enough I’ve now decided I quite like dressage shows.
That’s about all my news for now, I’d better go and keep on packing … it might take a while.
Happy eventing,
Laura.
