‘Time flys when your having fun’! And this season has been no exception to that rule- it has flown by, I can’t believe it’s over! And as with any discipline we’ve had a season of ups and downs, but we have to remember the bad days are there to make the good ones even better!
New Arrivals
The biggest excitement this summer has to be the arrival of our furry babies! First to arrive at the beginning of June was ‘Sapphire’ or Saffy (aptly named after Bombay Sapphire to go with Gin and Tonic- the other two woofers!) Sapphire is a Rottweiler cross who was abandoned in Spain at just 6 weeks old. Luckily for her I have a wonderful friend who runs a Spanish Dog and Cat rescue charity, as the amount of stray or abandoned dogs out there is huge, and when I saw Sapphire advertised how could I just leave her! So with a bit of fundraising for the charity Sapphire was microchipped,wormed, jabbed and transported back to the UK to live with us. She is the most wonderful puppy to have around, and slotted in like she’s been here for years!
Shortly after Sapphire arrived we were expecting our second baby- the foal! And we didn’t have to wait long! When mum opened the stable door to feed one morning there was a beautiful colt foal. 2 weeks early! No warning signs from the mare, I hadn’t even got round to setting the foaling camera up and out there he was! How lucky were we, no sleepless night, no worry or stress, and a healthy baby boy before we even started to think about it! He has been named ‘Fairfield D’artangnan’ or Aarte In his stable! He’s growing into a beautiful dark bay, next worry is weaning! But iv already got that planned and bought him a play mate- any excuse for buying new ponies!!
So, inbetween trying really hard not to spend all my time watching and playing with the babies, we’ve had a really busy summer! Lots of horses in to work, shows every weekend, training and judging. The horses have been great this season. Dizzy Rascal, the traditional stallion, has excelled himself In his first season. He has stood in the placing in every class he has done, He is now also graded with the Traditional Gyspy Cob Association (TGCA), qualified for the British Dressage TGCA finals and has qualified for the Royal International 2017. A very exciting future for this lovely boy.
We had a lovely day at The Royal International Horse show with Nemo. This horse is always a pleasure to ride and show- and he has already qualified again for next year! The In hand horses have done their fair share of winning and taking Championships. I even managed to get my big boy back in the show ring! Ok, it wasn’t quite as successful as I would of liked as he found the whole thing rather terrifying, but I really had given up hope of him ever being a show horse, so let see what a winter of work can do- fingers crossed for next season!
And finally, my job as groom for Mike King and his lovely driving pony, after travelling MILES up and down the country, many disappointments and just misses, we Qualified for HOYS! We had a lovely day up at the NEC for HOYS last week, the pony look fantastic and Mike drove beautifully.
With the season now changing, I find myself with a set of clippers in my hand regularly, instead of cleaning showing tack cleaning hunting tack and sit twiddling my thumbs at weekends with no shows to go to! A good opportunity to do all those jobs that never get done- like organising the rug loft! We even found time to entertain Dad by taking him to the pitch and putt golf course for a day out for his Birthday! Dad, who is completely non horsey, plays golf every weekend while we go showing, then sits and listens to us every Sunday evening as we discuss/ dissect/ celebrate the weekend showing, so we thought it only fair we join him in his sport for his Birthday- needless to say I won’t be changing sports any time soon, I was useless!
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