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Diary
Jan 2010 - Feb  | 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!!!!
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| 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!
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 | 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.
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| 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.
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| 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. | 
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 | 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.........
DIARY ARCHIVE
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