Month: December 2018

The boys have all had a great week, we got together with their riders to have a little practise. We took two of them to a show on Saturday where it certainly reminded us that we were in the middle of December. It was absolutely freezing!

Newoak Furious and I won our class and Thistledown San Siro and Charlotte, his jockey for Olympia, were 2nd in their class. Furious was also Reserve Champion.

We were really pleased with them and although we need to tweek a few things before the big day I was pleased with them both. Ashley Rancher has got together with his rider and that went well too, she has already ridden him at a show before so hopefully they will go well together again on the day.

It has been a case of checking all the little details, farrier, physio, trimming them up and washing bandages, boots, numnahs and taking my jacket to the dry cleaners. I really hope I remember to pick it up this week!

We also had a check of all the equipment we need as it will have to be packed into a tack trunk and we really don’t want to be forgetting things.

We leave to go to Olympia on Sunday morning as its not too far to go, so the ponies will be turned out as normal on Saturday before having a wash and being got ready.

Olympia is a magical show to compete at and we are so excited to be competing. Fingers crossed!

Two weeks to go!

Oh gosh that has come around quickly! It is really real now, so we are on to the final practises, preparation and getting everything into place.

All 3 boys have been out to an indoor school, just to make sure they remember what they are doing and have a relaxing time indoors before the big day. Their fitness is going well and the mild weather has really helped us as we have been able to canter in the fields and they have had lots of variety in their work with lots of hacking and jumping to keep them fresh and fit.

The weather is a daily obsession in my conversations as one of them we haven’t clipped, so the warm climate has helped but with all the rain we’ve had it still has been a case of rugs on… rugs off … as its not comfortable for them to be too hot.

They all go out daily as I feel that it is vital for them to be out, with their heads down eating some green grass. This does mean lots of wet rugs and muddy ponies to deal with!

Ashley Rancher has been out competing at Affiliated Dressage and gained his highest score of 69% in a novice test so that was really encouraging for him.

The farrier and physio are all booked to give them their final once over and a few other preparations are planned. I think its the calm before the storm.

We have started to get numnah’s, girths, rugs etc ready as they will all need to be loaded into a trunk/tack locker as the lorries are not parked near the stables at Olympia. Everything has to be transported off your lorry and placed outside your stable, so its a case of taking as little as you can but not forgetting what you need…. more lists needed I think!