April week 1

 2006

This week was the first week where all the horses were at the new yard after Belton.
 There was obviously a lot to do around the yard, but the whole vibe seems to be very relaxed at the farm and everyone is settling into the new routine very well.
It’s nice to get some sense of normalcy back into our lives, although the house is quite cosy, with all the staff and students having to live with us until the accommodation is built!

On Monday, we headed back to Belton to x-country school some of the horses.
Mark took Duke, who was naughty at the trakhener at the weekend, and rode George, a clients horse, round the course as well. Tanya (Tig) took Scally as they haven’t had a run this year yet, and Lauren took Louie, as he didn’t run at the weekend, and the weather held and it didn’t rain whilst we were out!

The week was then quite quiet until Thursday, when Jeremy came to teach Mark some more dressage in the morning.
 In the afternoon, we headed to Sheffield with Carl to the British Show Jumping Open, for the Indoor Eventing class, which didn’t start until about 6.00!
We were lucky enough to get a last minute invite on Wednesday morning. This was the inaugural class of its kind, which consisted of 5 show jumping fences followed by solid x-country fences, and riders are judged against the clock. It was a two second penalty for every rail down. There were lots of skinnies, corners and angles, with really tight turns needed to make the time.
Mark was third to last to go, and flew round the course, taking every turn spot on, and only having one rail down.
He went into first place and went on to win the class, plus extra money because he bet on himself just before the class started!
Needless to say, its pretty obvious that Carl is built for these courses, and he has thousands of carrots waiting for him at home!

Saturday and Sunday we were back doing the eventing outdoors, at Weston Park.
We should have quit while we were ahead really.
Tanya had Storm in the novice, who did a clear show jumping, but had glance offs at skinnies x-country.
Mark had Duke and Tiger in the novice but Duke was eliminated x-country and Tiger had one down jumping and clear x-country. Johnny was in the intermediate, and did a good dressage but was a nightmare in the show jumping with rails down and a run out so didn’t go to the x-country.
Lauren had Delphi there just to do the dressage and jumping, and she was good, having a rail down in the jumping.
Louie was good until the x-country, where he was eliminated at the sunken road.
Tig just had Jack this weekend, and was the only one of us to have a good time! She did a nice dressage and just one down show jumping with a clear x-country. The only nice round of the weekend!
 A weekend in bed would have been much more productive!