Tuesday

After our day competing at Tweseldown yesterday we didn’t get to assemble the jigsaw that is packing all the necessary feed (human and equine)/bedding (ditto)/tack/clothes/rugs/etc in the lorry until this morning, resulting in a very delayed departure for Houghton.

A further hold up was when I realised that I had forgotten my tails and had to meet Mummy with them in a pub car park! This meant for some real rushing around on arrival in order to get Squid (Pusiden) plaited and suitably beautiful, in time for the 1* trot-up at 4pm. Fortunately all went well and he was accepted (always a good start), after which we could actually relax and get ourselves settled in for the week.

The two babies, Flight (Gloris Flight) and Christian (Brandonview Charlie), thought that the whole experience was just too exciting for words and giving them some exercise was fun, I’m thinking I may need to organise some sponsorship from SuperGlue (other brands are available) to make sure I survive the week.

Now it’s time for us to chill for a bit, I’m thinking a glass of vino and then bed.

Wednesday

Nothing really serious happening for us today as Squid’s dressage is not until 11.26 tomorrow. All the ponies seem to have settled into their stables well, Flight even enjoyed his breakfast in bed and Christian has at least stopped trying to climb over the walls to find his friend both were much more amenable about working this morning, although Christian did get a little bit carried away when we had a practice gallop in preparation for his BYEH class tomorrow, but fortunately it was a very big field and he hadn’t the energy to continue for too long.

Squid on the other hand, was not setting a good example, 2 hours hard schooling this morning, followed by another hour this evening has just about reminded him that we have a dressage test to get through before we can do the fun stuff, but I think it will be an early start tomorrow to give him another hard session before we have to actually acquaint ourselves with the dressage judges…

Thursday

All of yesterdays hard work paid off, despite the thunder as we came down the centre line and the hailstones that started to fall on us midway through, Squidgey performed his best ever test for a mark of 45.6, it puts us in 21^st position but its all very close and we are just 6 marks behind the leader so the cross country time is going to be really influential.

The course certainly looks tougher than last year so at least it won’t be another dressage competition.

Flight and Christian also excelled themselves in their respective BYEH classes, both finishing 5^th. Christian even managed to score, jointly with the winner, the highest jumping marks in the class (37/40), although I felt it was a shame that the judge in the final ‘star quality and potential’ part didn’t like him at all, giving him 1/10 marks, preferring the flashier types, like Flight, who gained 7/10. But all in all, despite the weather it’s been a pretty good day.

Now I’m off to the showers and I am really hoping that today they will be at least lukewarm. Please.

Friday

Well Squid didn’t let us down, in fairly vile weather conditions he jumped a fantastic clear across the country, flitting across the top of some really churned up and unpleasant ground, he even made up enough time that I was able to take two long routes (at 16 a-b, the log on the mound to the corner and at 22 a-b, the skinny barrels) just to make absolutely sure that we would have no silly mistakes, and we still got home on 8m.12sec, comfortably inside the optimum.

After the cross country phase we moved up to 11^th place.

The track certainly caused its fair share of trouble, knocking out 31 of the 102 starters, although much of the trouble was a lack of experience or respect for the effects of the soft ground on how the fences rode, there were still some notable scalps claimed by the end of the day, at which point, the sun came out and everything started to dry up, much to the relief of the 2* competitors running tomorrow.  

The two younger boys have had a fairly easy day, Flight did jump in a 1m open class first thing this morning, although he had 4 faults, at this stage of his career every time he goes in the ring he is learning something and I think that once he becomes a bit stronger and figures out where his arms and legs are meant to go, he will be a really smart horse.

So its another day over, time now to go and put the boys to bed, Squid has trotted up sound this evening so fingers crossed he will still be so in the morning.

Saturday

Squid was absolutely fine and sailed through the trot-up this morning, (ok, breath again) so after a very early start (did we really have to trot up at 8am??) it was a leisurely wait for the showjumping to start at 12.30.

Squid prepared himself by retiring back to bed, and after giving the two young boys a hack around the park I felt that he had the right idea and decided to do the same.

The relaxed preparation paid off and we jumped a good clear, never touching a pole.

Unfortunately for us, only 3 of the horses above us had faults, giving us a final finishing position of 8^th.

A fantastic result for my very special boy who can now have a few easy weeks in the field. The South East was well represented in the end, with Penny Sangster finishing just 0.1 ahead of us in 7^th and Ellie Hughes in 5^th.

I think tonight deserves a visit to the bar and perhaps even a boogie on the dance floor, before heading home early tomorrow in order to get Cooper (Foxes Castle) ready for Borde Hill on Monday.