January and February have flown by in a flurry of post snow activity, and as I write this I am mildly congratulating myself on having finally unpacked everything in our new yard. This is of course thanks to my fantastic helper Christine, who courageously battled through an unexpected Scottish winter to remain loyal to the CA Eventing enterprise. Indeed, our return home was somewhat unscheduled – due to the fact that I had an unfortunate fall at Little Downham, which kept me ‘off games’ for a short while. However, despite the intense chill factor we managed to keep ourselves pretty well entertained – even if it did involve a broken limb ‘extreme sledging’ – and Christine certainly made her mark on the Borders clubbing scene…!
So we packed our bags two weeks ago and trucked South to our new base – the Blanchards’ lovely yard near Abingdon. Sadly I had to leave Simi at home, as with the acquisition of Ian Gillespie’s ‘Fred,’ – who is an exciting new addition for the start of the season – there wasn’t enough room on the lorry. However I have left him in Darren’s capable hands at home and am looking forward to being reunited with him at Lincoln, which isn’t long now!
I had another new addition to the yard last week too, who is utterly irresistible. He is the equine Adonis, and goes by the name of Ralph Whitehead. Bred by my good friend Paul’s mother Jan, I feel a special fondness for him because he is by Viento Uno W, who was the loveliest stallion at Anna van Olst’s yard in Holland, when Paul and I were working out there. He certainly has a strong look of his Father and moves beautifully, so I am very much looking forward to getting out and about with him.
It has been pretty hectic since our arrival, and although ‘sat nav’ has become my new best friend – thankfully preventing me from getting lost/ being late quite as much as I suffered in Cirencester – it always takes time trying to suss out the locality. We have a new vet, farrier and a great new physio who I have now met thanks to the super organisation of my Mum. In addition to that I have been trying to catch up with my sponsors; Katy Tyler from Top Spec has been out meeting the new arrivals on the yard, and Didier from Devoucoux has been out checking all the saddles are fitting as they should. Gatehouse has very kindly given me three new hats for the season which is extremely exciting, (my sisters will be happy I now have a velvet sj’ing hat rather than the one with a stripe I thought was so snazzy!) and Mr Goyens has generously invited us to go and jump in his big indoor arena this weekend, so I’m hoping I won’t be testing any of them out too much as everyone’s in pretty high spirits…!
It’s certainly all go down here, and although there has been no time for even a Valentine’s eve excursion, I am loving the buzz of activity and really looking forward to seeing what will happen in my first year as a real professional. Bring it on! C x
Posted Friday 18th February 2011
