Happy New Year

Happy 2017 everyone!

Guess it's time for an update, mum worked a lot of the festive period and Paige hasn't been very well so we've had a pretty easy time of it here the last couple of weeks. Mum has been trying to make up for it this week though!

Isla went hunting with the Burne Bloodhounds on Sunday, new pack for her and very welcoming, she came back filthy though which somewhat defeated the purpose of her bath the day before! She had a chat to our old friend Mark of emmelleff photography who was responsible for some lovely pictures of us back in Lincolnshire, he had his work cut out running through the mud and crouching in hedgerows trying to get flattering photos of princess in the rain though!

Today mum put me on the box and took me hacking somewhere different, she said the school was frozen and it was about time we did something about both our bellies. She'd worked out a route along part of the South Peak Loop and Pennine bridleways joined by a few quiet roads and permissive tracks. Unfortunately her carefully planned gallop spots had frozen solid and I had to pick my way along them so it took us 2.5 hours to do 11 miles in the freezing cold! I was very brave though and went past all sorts of scary things like quarries, a man with a gun and rocks.

It wouldn't be a new year blog without setting out some aims for the coming year.

The main objective for me is Badminton of course.

I need to work on getting my jumping confident at 1m so even if the inevitable rain tries to disrupt us I can get round the championship course on grass without disgracing myself, with that in mind we are going to practice a bit more at home and try to get a couple of shows in before our first event which if all goes to plan will be the East Midlands Dressage Group 95cm at Osberton at the end of February. Hopefully followed up with a BE100 or two before probably the BE90 at Eland for a bit of confidence before the big day.

We need to do something about the state of my feet before then too, mum has no problem taking me to Badminton with no shoes but apparently my frogs are so rotten the vet might not even let me on site. The ever helpful Steve Leigh of Natures Way Natural Hoofcare has been recruited as part of the team to help out on that front, he's also very kindly paying our entry fees for the main event.

Hopefully we'll find time to get a bit of dressage in as well, we're going to aim at Area Festivals Novice Silver and Elementary Bronze, already got our qualification for the former, just one more outing needed for the later.

Not sure we'll have chance but some qualifying runs for BE regionals or the Yorkshire Challenge in the autumn wouldn't go amiss either but apparently after Badminton mum has to concentrate on "the wedding", no idea what this involves except no horses....wtf?