So I am going to type this quickly before my fingers get too cold to type!
We ended up setting off a day earlier than planned for Sheepgate so yesterday was a mad rush – including stopping on the way with Hubert K at Argos to buy a new sleeping bag after I couldn’t find mine! It felt so good yesterday though planning and packing the trailer and car for a show.
We arrived about 4pm and first thing after unloading Hubert K was to try and put up the tent. The tent was from Lidl and the instructions were minimal – I actually don’t think I have ever put up a tent before. It took a while but between me, Ben and Hattie we got it pitched. Quick change for Hattie and Ben and her set off back to the yard leaving me and Hubert K here until Monday.
Last night I took full advantage of the lovely indoor school with mirrors here at Sheepgate
and rode Hubert K. He was super last night – didn’t put a foot wrong and the best I have felt/seen him away from home – I got off him with such a positive feeling towards today!
Hubert K has settled into the temporary stables no problem, he enjoyed eating the grass in his stable first before his bed went down. He has hit his head a couple of times looking out over the door – the perils of being a big boy. After settling Hubert K in for the night I started to settle myself into the tent, the only thing was that it was bloody freezing! By the time I’d checked on Hubert K and given him his super at 10pm I could no longer feel my fingers. I got into my sleeping bag with a set of pyjamas, tracksuit trousers, jumper, 2 pairs of socks and my woolly hat on – at 4.30am I was still freezing and put on my coat and went back to sleep. When I got out of the tent this morning there was a frost covering the outside of the tent – I hope it’s a bit warmer tonight!
I had office work to do first thing with it being the first of the month, cleaned my tack, realised I had forgotten my number at home, filled out a bio sheet for myself (always filled it out for other people before – it felt good to be doing it for myself), hand grazed Hubert K and plaited before the arena free time at 10am.
He was really good in the arena walk, a little hesitant but I was happy with everything so after 10 minutes we went back to the stables, untacked and he enjoyed some hay while I dashed to the shop to buy a new number. Quick change, Hubert K in his whites and we were back in the warm up for 11.10.
I could tell Hubert K was in one of his cheeky moods, a little threatening and backing off, so I rode my best in a busy warm up to get him forwards and it seemed to work. We walked over to the arena, which was completely on its own but you can see the warm up in the distance. Before we even went in the arena he had one of his “humping” episodes so as we entered we crabbed down the centre line sideways – great start! The rest of the test was much the same, backing off my leg, spinning, humping, breaking in the canter – quite the spectacle! But we rode through it and finished our test with an unimpressive 49% and second place. The judge was very diplomatic commenting on how nice a horse he is but a pity he didn’t go forwards today.
Another break for Hubert K, long enough to and tack back up again, and it was round two. I was a lot harder on him in the warm up this time when he backed off my leg and threatened. It seemed to help as we only had one stop and spin, but again got told off for not riding forwards enough (I was just happy I could control the spinning and napping!) but improved our score by 10% and ended on 59%.
The rest of the day has been spent watching the dressage, enjoying the coffee, looking after the main man and keeping warm! Here are loads of pictures for you to enjoy and hopefully my laptop battery will last until tomorrow evening when I plan on reporting better more forward rides!!
Enjoy! Anna-Lisa x
