Diary Archive

Happy New Year finally! I'd like to say I've had my hands full but so far motherhood is all about the feeding, sleeping and the mucking out so just like having a new horse really.

Lily's first show was Olympia. We met Janette Chinn and her boyfriend Chesty for the afternoon performance where Billy Twomey was jumping Janette's mother Sue Davies's horses. Billy had rescheduled to jump the horses in the class in the evening so we thought we'd stay on if we could cope with a 4 week old baby. She was a real hit in the Owners & Riders Box, she had her piccy taken with Michael Whitaker but unfortunately my Michael's camera skills were rubbish! She totally enjoyed Olympia and slept through Santa Claus twice!

We had our first christmas at home and only ventured out to attend the Windlesham Pram race on Boxing Day - this is not a mother's race as you would expect. It's a race from Pub to Pub (9 in fact) for teams of people in Fancy Dress and you had to push a pram (also in Fancy dress) and have a drink in each pub while raising money for charity along the way. Lily slept through the whole experience but it was really funny as every team went to a massive effort on the fancy dress front.

Christmas was then followed by the snow. Poor Buggy had just started working when the snow hit so was confined to Barracks. With no sign in let up with the weather we decided to join Zoe Eyres's ski trip to Morzine. As we'd already booked to go to Claire Lomas's Fashion Show, which was a fantastic night, we could only go skiing for 6 days. At only 2 days notice to go to Morzine, we decided to surprise everyone and not tell them we were going and the best way to go with a baby and 'all the kit' was by car. We're quite accustomed to driving through France so we hopped on the tunnel, headed for Dijon, winged it left by lake Geneva and arrived in time to surprise everyone who had just arrived back at the chalet after their first days skiing. Michael & I juggled the week, he skied the morning and I skied in the afternoon. I also met up with Event rider Erica Watson and her daughter Ibble who live in Morzine, Erica also has her horses in the middle of a ski resort ... how fab is that skiing and riding! It was an excellent week and Lily enjoyed her first ski trip.

It was white when we left for France and gone when we arrived back in the UK so Michael was able to get going with Buggy. With her road work well under way Michael could crack on with her flat work. This was an ideal opportunity for me to have a sit on her in the school and get a feel for riding again bearing in mind I haven't ridden for over 12 months. I have to say she was absolutely brilliant and it was just like riding a bike...you never forget. Buggy has been able to start jumping consistently and is off to Merristwood to jump around a course. I haven't left the ground yet that's Michael's department.

I'm not quite sure where the last 3 months have gone but the start of the season is just around the corner. We are planning a horse shopping trip to Ireland to find me a new horse but the weather has hampered things slightly over there too so we'll just wait until there's enough horses in to be tried.

Until next time.......

Mid Nov - Mid Dec

Finally after plenty of nagging and a trip from the plasterers we finally kicked off with 'Project Nursery' - this did infact entail having 3 rooms completely redecorated and having lived in 1970's decor for the last 18 months I was delighted to be choosing light coloured paint from Farrow & Ball! Soon I was negotiating my way around skirting boards, door handles, coving and electric sockets. Michael had banned me from driving as I'd scraped the new car twice within two weeks both at speeds of under 5mph - he labelled me a maternity liability!! My mother was then seconded in as my co driver and how she put up with me in my pregant state I had no idea but between us we managed to be Michael's DIY gofer!

My great friend Arabella Pope came to stay for the weekend and managed to steer me around Kingston John Lewis curtain department and finally sorted me & Michael out as we couldn't seem to agree on anything suitable. Arabella is a freelance cook in London and we were treated to the most scrummy meal that she cooked for us - I was resembling a beached whale and seemed to have lost the enthusiam to lift a saucepan so it was a bit of a luxury having someone cook for us especially someone as talented as her. I did however have a bit of a funny turn in John Lewis but with a week still to go before the baby was due I thought nothing of it....silly me!!

Lily Grace Wynne arrived in the morning of 17th November and I think I must have been blessed with a pretty short labour of only 6 hours. She is adorable but I'm still getting to grips with having a REAL baby about the place. I'm quite good at the mucking out but the feeding regime is taking a little longer to sort out. As she was early I wasn't quite prepared for her arrival (I've only know about it for 9 months!!) but I've since got the pushchair off to a T - it was a shakey start and when Michael waved me off on our maiden voyage - a walk down the lane to my parents house I had a total out of body experience......I was pushing a pushchair, with a baby in; AND IT WAS MINE!!! I was slightly concerned as it wasn't as comfortable ride as I would have liked but having reached my parents house I realised that Michael had sent us out on flats - he hadn't pumped up the tyres!! We are now in the full swing of sterilizers, nappies, puke and changing baby clothes...it's a joy! I was delighted that Auntie Arabella has already given her a pony complete with stable even though it's a stuffed one it's a start and Michael has yet to buy her a tennis racquet so I could be winning already!!!!

Poor Buggy had to take 5 days off for Maternity leave and I have to say didn't complain at spending more time eating grass!! She has since resumed her routine and has now started jumping and has been keeping Michael busy although he's not been too keen on riding in the rain of which there's been loads. The other animal keeping Michael busy is Maurice Mole......in our back garden. I think he's invincible and has been laughing at our attempts to evict him. Michael has tried smoking him out - he must have been wearing a mask and we've now resorted to a sonic noise contraption.... I think Maurice is wearing headphones as he popped up 4 new mole hills today - any Mole experts out there with any tips get in touch!!!

We're off to Olympia to get into the Christmas Spirit with Lily next week so will report back from there.

Until next time.......

Mid Oct - Nov Week 1

The weather for the Lycetts Young Event Horse finals was absolutely fabulous...I remember watching last year when it was pouring down, windy and freezing so it made a nice change to sit out in the sun to watch. I was parked by the showjumping while Michael videoed all the 4 year olds going cross country which he later posted on the website. He's really enjoyed making the cross country videos and have we've had requests for next year so if you see a man in bushes with a video camera that's Michael! There was a great atmosphere at the final this year and lots of people turned out to watch the sports future stars. For the first time I went to watch the In Hand classes as Kate Maitland was showing her two homebred 3yr olds who'd never left the farm before. They were very well behaved all considered if a little vocal!

With my foreign travel ban now firmly in place we headed to Broadway in Gloucestershire, an event I've never been to. We passed the racing mecca of Jack Daws Castle on the way there and found the event nestled on the side of a lovely village. It was a very well run event and an excellent viewing course. The showjumping arena reminded me of the village fete as there seemed to be lots of locals turning out to watch the event. Michael again was videoing the course as well as watching a couple of lovely young horses he's had his eye on.

Pau CCI**** is always an event I like to go to but sadly this year it was definately a no go. I know it's a long way to get to but there are quite good travel links with Pau having a local airport and Toulouse, Bordeaux & Biarritz all within shouting distance. The Brucie Bonus this year was they were showing it live on the Internet so who needs to fly all that way!! Saying that my parents always go to Pau they stay in a little hotel that has and excellent restaurant (one of the best in Pau) so they were my eyes and ears for the week! Last year when we went it was almost Bikini weather so the sight of all the brolley's made me feel slightly better that'd we'd not gone. The live coverage on FEI TV was brilliant although the coverage on Pau's own website was slow to say the least and drove me mad. Michael connected the laptop into the TV and I had the best spot on the sofa to watch while Millie had her own screen from the laptop on the floor to watch - her favourite was the cross country...couldn't drag her away!!

Buggy has arrived and doesn't seem to have forgotten what she learnt when she was here in the summer so Michael is able to start her off pretty much where he left off with her which is encouraging so there'll be more updates from her corner when she starts jumping which shouldn't be too long.

I'm relieved the season is now finally over as I've not ridden at one event and seem to have been pregnant forever.....but the finishing line is now in sight with just two weeks to go! I've been nagging to get the Nursery decorated and finished in time but I can see that going out of the window as the plasterers aren't arriving until next week! We've nowhere to put all the baby's stuff that's been ordered and arriving at a scary rate of knots and the shed is bulging at the seams. Putting the pram up is an art I'm going to have to master, I've been failing miserably on that score and god knows what the bottle feeding steamer does..... it's like The Krypton Factor!

Until next time...........hopefully bump free!

Mid Sept to Mid Oct 09

It's all the B's with Burghley out of the way we headed next to Blenheim. The weather was absolutely fantastic and I think they had a bumper year for spectators which was well deserved after last years cancellation. We decided not to stay up and commuted for Friday & Saturday where met up with Janette Chinn, her mother Sue Davies and Brian Hyslop. I'm on a bit of a go slow now and spent all of Saturday watching the cross country action on TV from the members hospitality marquee which was great as we caught up with everyone.

Sue's new horse Fernhill Urco was doing the 8/9yr old CIC*** and they were showjumping after the CCI*** cross country and added a new dimension to the timetable. Urco jumped a super round and moved up the order and in with a top 10 placing but with cross country still to go. We weren't able to get there on the Sunday but he went really well cross country although Mary didn't push him for the time and finished 7th - he is only 8 after all and has had quite a busy year.

I've hardly been near the horses as I've been lying horizontal on the sofa with sore ribs......anyone who tells you they sail through pregnancy is a liar in my book! The only good thing was I had prime spot for watching the Europeans. We decided that we wouldn't go to Fontainebleau once Mary had withdrawn Imperial Cavalier who, by the way, will be back at the beginning of next season and has no major injuries. And instead we re-routed our tickets so we could go to Lignieres the following week. My parents were at the Euros and said there were more English there than in England and having been to Fontainebleau several times knew the layout of the event which again helped in understanding the course. I was surprised it caused so many hiccups but thinking back the ground is very deceiving and even the usual spring 3 star trips up experienced horse and rider combinations. I thought the Brits looked very classy but I don't think we should pat ourselves on the back for too long as it seems when it comes to Worlds and Olympics we can never quite pull it off and the team didn't jump clear rounds on the final day either. Nonetheless Tina, the team & Piggy's medals were very well deserved.

I'd had a minor problem with my pregnancy and spent 2 visits to the Labour ward the week after the Euros but after being given the all clear from the doctor we headed down to the Eurotunnel at Folkestone and over to France and kissed the drizzling rain goodbye. I'd not been to Lignieres before and it's a couple of hours South of Paris. It's the smallest village and we found a fabulous hotel with an amazing restaurant but the decor was a little to be desired. The event is held on the Race Course and the facilities are fantastic for both horses and riders with permanent stabling and all weather arenas for dressage and show jumping.

The weather was fantastic and I loved being back at an event but after a day watching dressage I wasn't feeling very well at all so we headed straight back to Calais hopped on the Channel Tunnel, to the Hospital and straight on a drip for 16 hours. I had the 'in' infection - Ecoli !! After 2 days in hospital and sadly missing Lignieres (which I shall go to again next year) I was back on the good old Sofa again!

We also cancelled going to Boekelo in Holland for the CCI*** too which again was very disappointing as I'd booked it ages ago knowing how popular it is but after our little dash back from France thought I better remain England bound. So again I watched the Internet coverage horizontally. I've given up on finding a horse for me for now but will have a good look in the new year and am really looking forward to getting back in the saddle.

Buggy's back ..... well shortly. She's slimming down after her summer break and is currently on the walker at Pewit and should be here in the next couple of weeks hopefully a dress size or two smaller!! The other good news is Mary Melville's Fernhill Blue Diamond is now ready for Michael to start working having had a horrifically nasty virus that has taken all season to shift. He will start showjumping shortly along with Buggy so we'll be hitting the British Novice circuit big time with the babies!!

I sadly waved goodbye to my beloved 2 seater convertible and will shortly be joining the 4x4 mummies bridgade having bought a 4 wheel drive. I now have a different outlook on the motorways having spent many hours looking at lorry under carriages and wheel arches in my dinky sportscar and now almost joining them in their cabs I'm so high up!! I am struggling a little with quite how big they are but it's uber comfortable and more importantly has room for the dreaded car seat! Many thanks to Geoff Robinson - Gilly's husband for finding it for me.

We went down to Pulborough to help Mary Melville as she was doing her first ever Novice on Fernhill Fabio. The going was excellent and although it seemed to be quite straightforward the water was the cause of a lot of the problems and there was quite a meaty corner too. I think nerves got the better of Mary which is understandable when you move up a level but Fabby was a little superstar and gave Mary an excellent cross country ride until the angled houses two from home which he slightly misjudged, ran out but Mary proceeded to jump the second part anyway thus eliminating herself. The fence judge let her continue so she jumped the first house again and completed the course - Mary was delighted with him and says he jumped every fence but just not in the right order.

There's only a few events to go till the end of the season and we're off to watch the Pavo finals tomorrow which should be interesting.

Until next time.........

August 2009

I think every Event rider in the country was helping at the Pony Club over the summer as there was one week where ever single person we tried to get hold of was at Camp. We were asked for the second year running to judge the dressage at a Bisley Pony Club Rally. I really enjoyed it with Michael being the judge and me chief writer. Thankfully he's not one for giving great long comments as I had enough smoke coming off my pen as it was. The standard of riding had definately improved from the previous year and so had the biscuit selection that we had during the coffee break.

Gatcombe Festival of Eventing is always a must in my calendar and with Sue Davies & Janette Chinn having both their horses running we set off to Glos for the weekend. Mary had Imperial Cavalier in the CIC***W/British Open Class and Fernhill Urco in the Advanced class. Archie (IC) did his best dressage test to date and matched that of 4 star supremo Headley Britannia and followed by the mare's withdrawl and Archie's clear showjumping round put him into pole position going into cross country. Urco had already jumped a lovely round to finish just outside the top 10 so the excitement and expectation of perhaps another Gatcombe win was pretty high. I can only describe Mary's fall as one of those 'I can't believe that just happened' moments but that's horses I'm afraid with big highs come big lows.

August saw our annual summer holiday to Mallorca where we were staying at The Melville's stunning villa in the small resort of Canyamel on the North East side of the Island. It's lovely and quiet and not a sniff of any lager louts. It's a stunning villa with both a pool & tennis court so with Michael's newly found passion for the game of tennis and the arrival of friends Brian Hyslop & Kate Maitland, Sally Carson & Richard Allen and Janette Chinn & Derek Nolan he was able to reenact Wimbledon every morning. Everyone's game improved except mine - now resembling a hump backed whale and the speed of three legged tortoise I left them to it.

We had a fabulous time and it was refreshing to be able to sit out of an evening without the aid of a jumper or jacket - our British summer has been so short lived - the 32 degree heat was extremely welcome...

To say I'm not loving pregnancy is an understatement I was definately not designed for it. The only bit I have enjoyed is shopping for the baby although not knowing what you're having is very annoying as they only seem to have either pink or blue clothing available in the shops and nothing for the 'I don't know yets'. I am still mucking out every day but the relationship with my feet is going to be shortlived as I'm currently struggling to get socks and shoes on around my bump. For some reason just because you're pregnant people feel the need to touch your bump and I have noticed that people now look and talk straight at my bump instead of my face!! We are currently on a new car mission as a 2 seater convertible sports car is not the family way forward so hopefully that will be sorted shortly.

I have decided that Iris Van Rijckevorsel (Theresa & Tintin's new addition) is the most adorable baby and I'd like to order one just like her. Camilla Shepherd has been my counsellor and advisor, her baby Kitty will be a year old when our bundle arrives and her very amusing baby experiences have been envaluable especially on the pram front. And don't worry there won't be hundreds of baby pics I'm trying to stick to the fourlegged variety but we're a bit down on those currently!

I'm beginning to feel like a horse trials stalker as I think I've watched nearly every horse registered with BE so far this year. The good thing is we still have plenty of clients looking for horses so we have to be on the ball and see what's out there. Course walking is now off my list so I have become the showjumping groupie and I think this is the best place to watch the horses. We've been to Smiths Lawn, Wilton, Aston, Knaptoft, Hartpury & Highclere and managed to watch Stzregom World Cup Final on the Laptop while in Mallorca so I'm pretty much upto speed with what's going on.

We were at Burghley briefly on Friday and Saturday. We were invited to Mary King's book launch of her new Autobiography on Friday evening and there seemed to be plenty of faces from the past - 25 years is quite a long time to cram into a book. The cross country was full of excitement and I was delighted to see that Mark Phillips was clever with the course although there were plenty of problems there weren't any nasty falls - only Harry Meade but I won't get into that debate except perhaps the ground jury should have pulled him up at the Diary Mound - they were pretty quick to pull up France's Bruno Bouvier after his horse stopped once.

We have been out showjumping at Smith's Lawn as Michael has a new ride but more about that next time..........

Until then.......

June weeks 3 & 4, & July

Ok Ok they say you get very forgetful in pregnancy so that's my story and I'm sticking to it....hence the lack of Diary! We headed off to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix where we missed all the queues and sailed straight into the car park for about 10.30. We'd been warned of terrible queuing but that was if you were there along with all the motor racing groupies when the gates open at 7.00am!! I felt totally out of my comfort zone give me 4 legs any day and a course to walk around. I had no idea what the protocol for the day was except my most important purchase was some ear plugs! When we finally found our seats Michael was absolutely in his element and knew every driver whereas my limited knowledge was Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. I was feeling particularly ill that day due to morning (moaning) sickness and I think Michael was pleased he had his ear plugs in!! My synopsis of the day was it was very noisy, it is much better watching from the comfort of your sofa, it's definately a boys thing and I'm sticking to Horse Trials!

With an increase in demand for good horses we always like to be out seeing what horses are about and while we are based in the south we decided to take a trip up north to Aske Hall in Yorkshire. NEVER decide to travel on the M25 on a Friday evening OR decide to take a shortcut straight through the middle of London! 5 hours later we arrived at the luxurious Skeeby Travelodge right on the edge of the A1 after midnight. I only mention this as it was adjacent to the Little Chef which we headed into for Breakfast and having watch the Channel 4 series 'Big Chef takes on Little Chef' was even more delighted that Anne England who was Heston Blummental's guinea pig for the show having worked at Skeeby since 1978 cooked my breakfast! I was almost star struck, apparently she's recognised in the local Super Market all the time.... Michael talked me out of a photographic moment as it being an embarrassment and we headed off early to the event.

I'd never been to Aske Hall even when I was based in Yorkshire many moons ago and thought it was the most delightful, friendly event I've been to in ages. Firmly back in horse heaven (you can keep your motorsport) Michael ventured off to video the cross country for the website while I sat in the sun and watched every Intermediate & NRF horse showjump. It was great to catch up with lots of people who were surprised to see us so far North they kept asking if we were lost!

After a quick turn around at home we headed off the next day to Eridge in Kent again in brilliant sunshine although I was by now resembling a red lobster with my burnt face, legs and lips. It was interesting watching two events in two parts of the country and comparing the horses and thoroughly enjoyed my day at Eridge too.

Now feeling like a fully fledged horse stalker 2 days later we hit the road again to Shipton Moyne in Gloucestershire. I know the area well as I used to be based with my old advanced horse at Angela & Mike Tuckers near Tetbury but again had never been to the event. It was fantastic; like a mini Badminton - the courses all roped off, the fences all dressed properly and everywhere was immaculate and it's my goal to be back riding there next year by hook or by crook!

Horse update - well there is none not a sniff unfortunately for the second time we have come to a stalemate over the price of the horse we saw in Ireland so back to the drawing board.

Barbury was our next stop and decided to make a weekend of it although the turn in the weather wasnt exactly appealing. We met up with Janette Chinn & her partner Derek as her and her parents new horse Fernhill Urco was running in the 2 star section - it's always more exciting having a horse to follow especially when they're in with a shout of a rosette. Urco went brilliantly and was having a confidence giving run after Luhmuhlen. We then stayed on to watch the 3 star, I was glued to my stone while Janette high tailed it up to Bolesworth Castle in Cheshire to watch their showjumpers in the Grand Prix.

I've been on a pram mission this week. I never knew buying a pram would be so complicated there's hundreds on the market! Selena Farmer and myself headed down to Petersfield to see if we could make any sense of this new world we are about to enter into....she's due 2 weeks before me. After about a two hour demonstration I am now a fully fledged pram expert and have decided that 3 wheels will be better than 4. Michael even showed willing this week when Miles Cohen let him have a go on his mountain buggy at Aston Le Walls and drive Alfie Cohen all of 3 feet!

We kindly received an invitation from David Ashby at Amlin Plus, who were sponsoring Brightling Park CIC**, to have lunch at the event which we were delighted to accept. David is an avid supporter of Eventing not only owning a very good 3 star horse but also riding and offering an excellent equine insurance service through his company Amlin Plus. He also asked if I would present the prizes on his behalf of the CIC** so went to work on what to wear as I thought I ought to look a tad smarter than usual. That unfortunately went out the window with the weather almost blowing us off the side of Brightling Park and my waterproof jacket completely scuppering any glamorous photographic opportunities that might arise. I did however feel very grand handing out all the prizes and was quite a special treat.

I won't bore you with Tweseldown except we've been there too and also just spent the weekend at Aston Le Walls watching two busy Advanced Days of competition and I'm a little horsed out.......

I must thank Anna Hilton's two lovely girls as over a coffee in Anna's lorry they have supplied me with a full list of both boys and girls names....the next dilemma!

Until next time...

June Weeks 1 & 2

I haven't been to Borde Hill for years and was surprised how much it had changed. I did the Intermediate track several times there many moons ago which they now don't have and the Intro & Pre Novice tracks seem to take a totally new route. Mary Melville was riding Fernhill Fabio in the Intro as she's been trying to fit in competing around exams so we decided Mary needed to have some fun without any pressure. She rode really well and picked up a placing on him to finish 4th. It was a blisteringly hot day and the ice cream man seemed to be doing the biggest trade. I thought it was a very friendly event and the newly sighted showjumping arena worked really well.

Mary collecting her prize minus her stock!!

Buggy or fondly known to us as Bomberina has been working really really well. Four year olds can be quite frustrating as you think you're beating your head against the wall when it suddenly all drops into place. She turned a corner and started to work like a grown up horse on the flat producing some really consistent work and her jump has come on enormously. She is by Sue Davies lovely showjumping stallion Luidam and seems to have inherited some of Dad's traits and is very careful. So with her education going really well and lots of homework Michael decided that she should return home for a break in the field to have a think about what's she's learnt so far. Some people do too much with young horses and put too much pressure on. So Buggy has returned to Pewit Hall for some well earned R & R hopefully to return later in the season.

Flying to Ireland is so easy for us now they have moved BA into the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow as we can leave home and be at the gate within 40 minutes. The only draw back was they decided to put on a Dublin Showjumping Qualifier on that day and anyone who is anyone in Ireland will be competing there to get horses qualified for Dublin. So after seeing a 4yr old close to Dublin airport we headed down to watch the 5yr old showjumping qualifier - it's the best place to see young horses and there were plenty of them. We headed off in the afternoon to look at other horses that Richard had lined up for us to see and we found a lovely 5yr old that we are currently in negotiations with. Our journey back wasn't quite so successful as in Dublin we were delayed by 2 hours along with racehorse trainer Nicky Henderson who was also on our flight. We ended up walking in the door at midnight which made it a really long but enjoyable day.

Michael videoing at the Dublin qualifier

I love Bramham and having competed there successfully several times I'm very fond of it. I thought Sue Benson built a lovely track this year and the new loop around what was the old format steeplechase field was a great success. I'm definately going to get there again one day by hook or by crook just got to find the horse first! We decided to go up early on Friday morning so we could watch some of the dressage, watch the BYEH classes and walk the course so Saturday was free to watch cross country all day! We managed to book into the Travelodge last minute which was brilliant just 7 miles away and only 50 squids a night. I'm so over paying for expensive hotels when you are only in them for a nano second.

Michael and Kate discussing the water at Bramham

We walked the CIC*** cross country course with Kate Rocher who was having her first 3 star ride on a lovely french horse that we found for her a couple of years ago called Keseylou Tu. I thought it was a lovely introduction to 3 star without frightening the socks off the horses or the riders. The going was excellent and in the time frame they had to build the CIC 3 star track they'd done a fabulous job. Michael got fed up with me say "when I rode here......blah blah" but I think Kate took some of our advice on board and she rode a fantastic round on Saturday and despite taking two planned long routes at fence 6 and the second water gave her horse an excellent confidence giving qualfication towards her CCI*** goal later on this year.

The 5yr old BYEH class was very exciting that went only into the early evening and was made even more nailbiting as our great friend Nicky Roncoroni made it into the last 10 for the final gallop with her stunning roany grey Stonedge and ended up finishing 2nd. We had dinner in the competitor's tent on Friday night and was great to catch up with several riders but there was definately nerves emerging for the following days cross country and a slightly subdued atmosphere. I sat and watched the Under 25's make it all look very easy followed by the Senior CCI*** section which offered a lot more action. Brian was helping Henry Tett who was in the CCI*** section and I offered to help them at the end of cross country. It was hilarious as before I could mention to Henry to disconnect his new airbag he'd jumped off and it had inflated. Neil Spratt and Georgia Bale both did the same thing as Henry in quick succession and were all walking around looking like Telly Tubbies! I managed to get more water over me than on Henry's 17.2 Oakengrove Rabbit and returned to my TV seat albeit a little soggy to watch the rest of the days action including the CIC***. Michael spent most of saturday videoing action from the event which you can see on the latest news item.

Mary with her mother Sarah Melville at BCA

We returned home on Saturday night from Bramham as Mary Melville, who has now finished her exams, was competing at BCA this time in the Pre Novice on the Sunday. Mary had quite a busy social weekend as it was her end of exams celebrations so we forgave her for going wrong twice in her dressage test and despite an unlucky rail down (Fabby not Mary) she rode really well, had a lovely clear cross country round and was just out of the placings.

If you've been wondering why I've not had my feet in the stirrups recently ok I'm owning up now I'm pregnant. It's been like torture not riding and have missed competing dreadfully. I'd like to say pregnancy is fun but so far morning (moaning) sickness and the beached whale feeling has not been too joyful. I've not touched a drop of alcohol which has been surprisingly easy as it currently tastes like acid but I've moaned a lot (infact Michael is currently wearing earmuffs) about how awful I've been feeling. I say with trepidation that I might be moving into the 'blooming' phase where you're supposed to look and feel great but i think that's another way of saying you're going to be expanding steadily and people are just kind to you. Anyway we're dead excited and can't wait for November although if it comes next week that'd be very handy!!!

We're off to the British Motor Racing Grand Prix which I've never been too so will update you in my next diary.

until next time.......

May 2009

We're still on the hunt for a nice young horse and have been out and about looking at several but unfortunately nothing has quite hit the mark. We are now booked to go to Ireland for another shopping trip out there hopefully we'll find something out there. We have also been on the road looking at horses for Uptown Eventing and have found some absolute crackers if you've got a full piggy bank!!

With such good coverage on the TV of Badminton we decided we wouldn't be there for the whole duration of the competition. I decided that I'd take my mum to go and watch the trot up on Wednesday and then walk the course. We arrived to a howling gale and rain so we quickly abandoned that idea and headed off to Gilly Robinson's Winnebago for refreshments until the weather cleared which it did for the trot up.&nbs

Uptown Eventing

64, Bousley Rise Ottershaw Surrey, KT16 0LB, United Kingdom, +44 (0)7899 943133, info@uptowneventing.co.uk

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23:25 05-Sep-2010