March week 1

 2006

Arriving back from the States on Friday the 3rd it was straight back to the grindstone. Not only was there lots to do at the farm, but with Oasby Horse Trails next weekend there were lots of horses to ride.

The majority of the horses were still at Arena UK so there was plenty of travelling back and forward. - the Farm is only 30 minutes from the yard, but that is far enough.

We went XC schooling on Wednesday, this was obviously the thing to do as we bumped into 4 other event riders all Schooling!!
The horses all went well, so we were looking forward to Oasby HT.
That was until Friday morning when the heavens opened, actually we were luck it was just rain, the forecast warned of 6'' of snow!

Mark had 2 competing on Friday morning, he had 8 am dressage, ugg..... which sounded terrible, but actually turned out to be better than later in the day as the weather deteriorated as the day progressed.
Mark competed Johnny (Step In Time) and Tiger (Personal Impact) both went well jumping double clear, which was not easy in the conditions.
Tiger finished 6th with a slightly quicker XC.
Marks father, Johnny, had flown over to the UK for the event and his yearly trip to see United play.
Johnny, bred Johnny.... but had only seen him ridden once and this was the first time he had seen him compete!
Tanya had one ride, Storm. (Storm Chaser)  Ellen a friend of ours in the states has bought Storm, Tanya is riding him at a few events, Ellen is flying over in April to compete him. Storm had one down SJ and clear XC.

It was of no surprise when they cancelled the rest of the weekend, the conditions were terrible. But this meant Paul, & Rachel, our two working students did not get the run they were looking for. Both are on young horses and were entered in the Intro on Saturday.

With the event cancelled, It was back to work at the farm, it actually was not bad, as it allowed Mark more time to get the barn ready for concreting.

Mark and Johnny were due to go to Manchester to see United play, this is an annual thing (they get tickets as a Christmas present)
There was a mix up this year, the tickets did not arrive, when we rang to check the match had been moved from Saturday to Sunday - even better we thought. They were to meet a contact at the match to collect the tickets.
They left in plenty of time for what we were told was a 4oclock kick off..... having only got 2 miles down the road, they heard on the radio it was a 1.30 kick off...!!!!
So around they turned. - whoops.

Not to waste the afternoon, the carpets all needed pulling up in the house, Johnny went home Sunday night for a well earned rest!