With all the excitement of HOYS now over, I would like to say my life has quietened down a bit, but for some reason that hasn’t seemed to happen!
Jacob is still in great form, so I have decided to keep him a little bit longer to do the last Olympia qualifiers with him. I have no illusions of qualifying, but if it means I get to keep him a little bit longer than I definitely think it is worth giving it a try. He still looks great and is loving his work at the moment.
Last week I headed up to Rugby to do the Heritage judges assessment with my friend Steven Hulston. I was very nervous; we had some lovely ponies to judge and were really grilled by the assessors. I was pleased to pass with one year’s probation, as did Steven. We headed home late that night only to turn round the next morning and head back to Rugby with three ponies on board.
I had been asked to ride a Dartmoor stallion called Foxleat Victory (Vic), that Steven has in for schooling. I had only sat on him once before so I was hoping we would be able to gel quite quickly. Steven had with him a New Forest and also his section D stallion.
We all competed in the restricted classes and I was really pleased with how Vic went. His owners, the Sheenys, came along and were also pleased with his performance in the class. All of our ponies made it through to the top six in the evening, but it was freezing waiting around so I couldn’t wait to get riding again.
Vic was a little star in the evening and really enjoyed strutting his stuff. We finished sixth, which if I am honest was a bit of a disappointment, as I was really pleased with how Vic went. Steven’s other two both ended up fourth in their classes.
After a quick box up we were on the road home back to Brighton, arriving back at the yard at around 1am. After a long few days out and about, I would like to say that I have been taking it easy, but there always seems to be more ponies to ride!
On the home front, Sandy is still going very nicely, although riding via torchlight in the morning is getting less and less appealing. The other day I thought I was going to freeze to the saddle and it is still only October! I’m aiming to do one last show in November and then turn him away for a few months. Sir Francis has also started his more serious work again and hopefully he will get out to a show soon, even though he is already a really woolly bear!
Until next time
Chloe
