Hi everyone, got back last week from our initial trial ride on the South downs, WOW! I didn't expect it to be that good, like us they are in need of rain to put some cut in the turf, but some of the canters make the beach seem claustrophobic, it was very windy on two of our days, all the excitement we
needed. I am one of the least travelled people in the world, I used to go ocean racing with my father, so know a number of European ports, drove to Madrid for a party (beautiful city) but some of the views blow you away, Laurel has been all over the world, but she was gobsmacked as well. The B&B/stables were great, very friendly, next door to the Hungry Monk restaurant which has a
Michelin star and invented Banoffi pie 40 years ago, the Eight Bells pub is fab, great food, very welcoming, didn’t come last in the quiz either.
The only downside I could find, due to lots of sheep and cattle there are quite a lot of gates which have weights to stop people leaving them open, pleased I wasn’t on Earl, as you can’t do them on horseback. We are going to offer a two night break with a minimum of twelve hours riding, this will be spread over three days, the cost midweek £380 including accommodation and breakfast, we may be able to do some weekends, although these will cost a little more. Good news re getting some of the redundant horses back into work, I have been riding Earl most days for the last six weeks, he is going well and staying sound, Herodotus is taking rides, and will be available for our better riders soon, Basil has come back, he hasn’t been ridden since he left here, but he was very popular, he was a show horse (Anglo Arab) and had only been ridden by professional riders, and I hope to have shoes back on Amadour in the next couple of weeks, it will take a couple of months to get him fit again, he is a beautiful horse, but don’t say you can ride anything unless you mean it!
Competition wise, we entered Hawa Khana (Indi) in the Royal Windsor horse show, she was in the Tattersalls and ROR ridden thoroughbred show class, Glen did a splendid job riding her, she was a little green to say the least, she left racing last year, wintered out in our field, had a very short preparation and at 6 was the youngest horse in a class of 33, she wasn’t placed, but not in disgrace either. The horse Alex and I wanted to bring home was a brown 17.2 called First Love, turned out he belonged to the Queen, had been bred by the Queen Mother, his sire being Bustino who also sired our Steve’s Round. My broad band has stopped working, so by the time you get this the Derby will
be over, but I hope Carlton House does the business for HRH. Alex took Designer Drum (Kerrie) to Borde Hill horse trials last weekend, she is a 5 year old coloured mare ( I couldn’t believe how many coloured horses were competing, although many looked as if they should be delivering the milk ) like the rest of Alex’s horses she was very short of practice, as Alex only gave birth to Sophie two months ago, she was fourth after the dressage, had one of very
few clear rounds showjumping, was going well cross country until she had a stop at the water, Alex retired without trying again as the mare hadn’t seen water before. If you want a potential eventer or classy riding club horse 10k is all you need. I am looking for a new horse for myself, this will also be our flagship event horse for Alex to ride, it has been 10 years since foot and mouth disease brought our successful event team to a premature end, and I am missing the buz. Just saw in the paper that Tulisa from N-Dubz is going to be a judge on X factor, if you look me up on Facebook there is a picture of her having a lesson with Carrie. We could do with some rain now (odd request) some of the riding we use has been spoilt, Carrie, Laurel and me did the RDA sponsored ride over Blackheath and Winterfold, we only got about 3 canters in 3 hours, luckily for us the hill opposite the White Horse is riding beautifully, so we still have some of the best riding around, if anyone wants to start a day ride, let me know, also will soon have dates for cross country training and we are going to be running evening training courses while the evenings are staying light, please email me if you are interested in taking part in these courses
and we can let you have dates and availability.
