Happy New Year Everybody, my first diary entry for 2014. 

The run up to Christmas saw me getting the youngsters out as much as possible and teaching clients, honestly, truthfully all I can remember of the last few weeks is howling gales, rain, floods, more winds and more rain with the added excitement of no power, which means no lights, no horsewalker and an awful lot of mud. Anyone that knows me will tell you I have lots of coats and plenty of waterproofs, well I obviously don't have enough as I do not seem to have any dry waterproofs, everything is soaking wet. The ground is sodden. The roof flew off the stables. The fence blew down.....Yep, I along with many other people am officially fed up with this weather! On the plus side - all the horses have had fantastic water schooling experiences.

The horses stayed in routine over christmas, everyone got turned out, walkered and mucked out plus the extra carrots in their feeds, I had a non riding day on Christmas day but got straight back into work mode Boxing day. Unfortunately I had some very upsetting news over christmas and I have a hole in my heart where I lost someone very special to me, RIP Cowboy Ian xxxxxx Everyone looks forward to New Years eve, but for me I had a nice meal out and then an early night, I wasn't in the mood for celebrating. The best thing about horses is when you are down you can enjoy the sloitude of being with them.

I was looking forward to welcoming Wesley and a couple of the other eventers who have been on holiday back this week, but unfortunately having thought I had my staff arrangements sorted and a new person starting they now aren't so whilst I sort out staff the horses are having a slightly longer holiday than planned.

So if you are reading this and know of anyone, I am looking for FULL & PART TIME staff, good rates of pay, exceptionally nice horses and a yard with a good working atmosphere. Please contact me if you are interested in being part of the Sam Penn Eventing Team.

Today I am jumping the horses, working on related distances and straightness, everyone has jumped brilliantly and I am thoroughly looking forward to be out competing again next week AND its only 8 weeks until the eventing season starts!