Right, NOW I am getting organised!
- We bought a car! - We bought a feed bin! - We loaned a truck!
And that ^^ is what independence looks like!
I ended up with a little Vauxhall Astra, which is great to drive, I am really enjoying it! And it was a big sigh of relief getting that home and having my own transport again.
My feed bins arrived just a couple of days ago and it was so liberating emptying in my feed and getting my corner of the feed room organised. We are feeding Keyflow over here – and thankfully the horses are all now eating really well and have added some condition after the big trip!
There have been some ups and downs, but overall nothing major and they have settled well all things considered;
- After clipping them all, they looked beautiful for about 2 days before they all started reacting to the environment over here. They all came up in lumps in random places all over. Ricky is the worst of the lot and really took a hard hit – her whole head was covered in lumps, as well as her back, whiter and neck. We got the vet out who gave her some drugs to help it all clear up, and she’s now on antibiotics to help. I couldn’t ride her for about 4 days because they were so bad - pic attached from when they weren't so bad! - Rui had a little bump on his leg which I was anxious about, but after checking it out on Friday it looks like we are good to go again – we will just have to crack into our fitness to get back on schedule for Burghley. - Jasmines leg still looks big, but it has been steadily getting better each day. - Sooty has been a little champ and settled quickly with minimal lumps or bumps!
A couple of days ago we headed off to pick up our Lorry (truck!) We are incredibly lucky that we are able to loan this off a friend, it really has taken a huge weight off our shoulders. It is a Whittaker - so we need name suggestions starting with W please!
We took it for a spin and off to dressage lessons with Isobel Wessels – lovely to see a familiar face and we are so lucky to have been able to train with Isobel in NZ, so now the language and training is something we understand.
We are looking forward to the season ahead, Sooty will now kick us off with a run at Aston Le Walls in the OI (Open Intermediate) and then the weekend after we will head to Wilton with Rui and Sooty. The baby horses will start with a BE100 at Smiths Lawn on the 6th of August. Over here the one day events actually mean one day events (in NZ they are always two or three days), so the OIs will all run on one day, Novices another etc etc.
If anyone is thinking of visiting over here, coming to watch Burghley and Blenheim would be a great couple of weeks to watch! We are aiming Sooty for the 8/9yr 4*S class at Blenheim.
While the horses are filling out well, unfortunately their coats are a terrible colour and wont naturally recover until next season – which is all normal for changing hemispheres! We now have 3x buckskin horses and a peach one!
On Monday we were lucky enough to get a last minute call up to squad training, so we popped Sooty and Lizzie (Ginny's horse that recently came over from NZ as well) in the lorry and headed off to Lyneham for a jump lesson with Lewis! Great fun and awesome to get to watch the other lessons for riders heading to Aachen this week – go Kiwis!
I had to say goodbye to Brayden this week which was sad, he’s on the plane now to head back to NZ to train and play in the Futsal World Cup qualifiers in New Caledonia in November. We might try and see if we can get him here for Burghley but otherwise November it is! We will all miss him here!
All in all we are on track and enjoying the English sun – long may it last
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