News filtered across from the pony club training that The Legend had belied his age, 23 now, by giving leads to the less confident and unable to contain his excitement at being on a cross country course again had zipped off up the hill like Usain Bolt! The British Horse Feeds Cooked Linseed which is now part of his regular diet is clearly helping to support his joints and tendons not to mention giving him a super shiny coat, the old boy has never looked better and plans have been made for him to return to the eventing scene with us... keep reading this blog for more details next month...
The following day it was the turn of the young thrusters at Frickley , Minnie Hehe and Fancy Piece along with Barney Big Belly and Babyface who were making their BE debut. With my feet up, classic FM playing softly in the background, I keenly awaited news. A competitive dressage from Fancy Piece and a polished double clear put her in 7th place in the BE80 and a nod from The Old Girl that the pair are ready now to move up a level. In a sport where mistakes can literally break you, and more importantly your precious horse, to pays to be cautious and consolidated at one level before moving up. The newbies also didn't disgrace themselves, a respectable test and double clear with some time penalties put them mid-way in a big section and keen to have another run soon.
Some of you might be wondering what happened at our first event of the season, Aske Hall, up in North Yorkshire. The Old Girl worried as usual about fitness and lack of match practice entered us in the BE90, which was a good decision as the terrain up there was pretty hilly. Travelling up with Glamour Girl on board the humans were all slightly concerned about how the event would run 'behind closed doors' because of course the virus is still around and BE are doing everything possible to run events but with precautions in place (quite rightly to). Apart from the lack of commentary on the cross county and the lack of spectators nothing seemed much different, The Old Girl sported a pair of gloves to put the practice fences up and there were lots of hand sanitizers around the place which could easily have housed Goblins so I gave them a wide berth! It did feel good to be out again, with the grass under my feet as I danced down the centre line. In the next arena I could see Glamour Girl, as always the professional doing a beautiful job between the white boards, naturally I called out 'well done' to her which irked the Young Master into growling at me. Can't think why? With no scoreboards and lack of Wi-Fi, texts from the outside world informed us of our scores which were really quite respectable! Double clears meant we held our places and it wasn't until we were on route home we realised Glamour Girl had won her section and I was second in mine! The Old Girl was beyond delighted even more so when 'He who must be obeyed' told her we had won prize money. That is unheard of, we normally receive a bucket!
Good results don't just happen, it is all down to training and good stockmanship. The Old Girl and The Young Master work hard to keep our diets and work programmes up to speed and constantly review what can be improved and worked on. The weather has been challenging recently, one minute freezing cold then boiling hot along with sudden downpours. Fibre-Beet is such a great asset for any feed room. It provides slow release energy, help keeps condition on and what the Old Girl really loves is the hydrating properties it offers. We always have sloppy Fibre-Beet to drink between phases at events to keep us on tip top form.