I love my Spanish horse
Well-Known Member
Sooo have had possibly the worst week ever in the build up to the last show of the season, with last night truly taking the biscuit with me tw@tting my knee on the wall of the indoor school. Typical pleb of a horse thats usually scared of his oiwn shadow in this occasion didnt even flinch as my leg is grinded along the wall and just canters on merrily, with me half hanging out the side door.
Anyway onto this morning, and after a 2am call from my tennants 100 miles away saying theres a problem with the house (wtf do you expect me to do about it now!) we set of for the yard at a very civil 5am with my knee a lovely shade of purple, and a bilateral limp as am still recovering from foot op 5 weeks ago, why i couldnt have at least injured the same leg i dont know.
Got to the yard to find res had yet again painted himself in cr@p during the night, despite being bathed and rugged to within an inch of his life the night before, so after re-bathing we set off for romsey.
2 hours later rolled into the showground in the nick of time, luckily i got changed in the back of the lorry halfway down the m3, which not for the faint hearted and even more fun with 2 bad legs! Literally unloaded and headed straight for the inhand iberian class, with very little time when got to the collecting area to notice yet ANOTHER small stain on his leg, arrrgghh
Cue much fafing, cursing and running back to lorry to get sponges beore finally made it into the ring with a half clean horse (i think!).
We did our thing in the class, he trotted up nicely and we won, yay
. Only 4 of us in it but 2 very nice other horses and a judge that really knows her stuff so well chuffed with that and after quick lap of honour time legged it back to the lorry to get ready for the ridden class.
Now this is where the day got more interesting and i almost lost the will to live, as walking back to the box on cloud nine suddenly heard this loud RIIIIPPPPP, had only gone and made a mahoosive hole in my trousers, and not in a discreet ladylike place either! Que even more swearing, wondering what the hell im going to do and looking for safety pins, needle and thread or even gaffa tape to try and patch it back up with. Couldnt find any of the above but made the brave, and probably slightly stupid decision to get him tacked up and ride anyway, fully aware that the mouting process could turn my trousers into some kind of playboy costume Got on and was still just about held in, fortunatly part of the costume consists of a dead sheep on the saddle so i subtly sat the deepest i ever have in my life and tried not to move around too much, quite hard at the best of times esp with a horse that likes
to go everywhere in bounce mode!
Got warmed up and made it to the ring in better time, also caught up with some friends who were extremly supportive and sympathetic of my trouser catastrophe All went in and had the obligitory walk trot canter etc, res was being really good considering its such a big show and fortunatly in concentrating on him i forget all about the other problem and just got on with the job of keeping him settled and happy. Well, it seemed to work as got pulled into the initial line up first. Didnt quite know what to do with myself with noone on my right, is a scary place out there and almost forgot what i had to do when was first up for the individual show! Shouldnt have worried too much though, he went out really sweetly, had a little blip in the canter when i wasnt sure if he'd changed behind as felt unbalanced, so kept bringing him back to trot when actually i think he was ok and prob lost a mark or two there, but hey ho did a nice extended trot for me which isnt his strong point and was a good boy throughout. Went back in the line up, and was relieved to see trousers still in one piece, just! Res got a bit stroppy being made to wait around while everyone else went in, but eventually we all walked around again and got called back in 5th out of 8. Tad dissapointed with myself as judge clearly liked him and if id just let him canter on would prob have been higher, but thats life and he was such a good boy and made an amazing improvement from previous shows where he's previosly been a nervous wreck by the end.
Finally made it back to the lorry and got out of the offending trousers into something much more comfortable, and safe! Need to get the industrial strength needle and thread out now, and start the diet first thing monday
Some pics from the day
Anyway onto this morning, and after a 2am call from my tennants 100 miles away saying theres a problem with the house (wtf do you expect me to do about it now!) we set of for the yard at a very civil 5am with my knee a lovely shade of purple, and a bilateral limp as am still recovering from foot op 5 weeks ago, why i couldnt have at least injured the same leg i dont know.
Got to the yard to find res had yet again painted himself in cr@p during the night, despite being bathed and rugged to within an inch of his life the night before, so after re-bathing we set off for romsey.
2 hours later rolled into the showground in the nick of time, luckily i got changed in the back of the lorry halfway down the m3, which not for the faint hearted and even more fun with 2 bad legs! Literally unloaded and headed straight for the inhand iberian class, with very little time when got to the collecting area to notice yet ANOTHER small stain on his leg, arrrgghh
Cue much fafing, cursing and running back to lorry to get sponges beore finally made it into the ring with a half clean horse (i think!). We did our thing in the class, he trotted up nicely and we won, yay
. Only 4 of us in it but 2 very nice other horses and a judge that really knows her stuff so well chuffed with that and after quick lap of honour time legged it back to the lorry to get ready for the ridden class. Now this is where the day got more interesting and i almost lost the will to live, as walking back to the box on cloud nine suddenly heard this loud RIIIIPPPPP, had only gone and made a mahoosive hole in my trousers, and not in a discreet ladylike place either! Que even more swearing, wondering what the hell im going to do and looking for safety pins, needle and thread or even gaffa tape to try and patch it back up with. Couldnt find any of the above but made the brave, and probably slightly stupid decision to get him tacked up and ride anyway, fully aware that the mouting process could turn my trousers into some kind of playboy costume
Got on and was still just about held in, fortunatly part of the costume consists of a dead sheep on the saddle so i subtly sat the deepest i ever have in my life and tried not to move around too much, quite hard at the best of times esp with a horse that likes to go everywhere in bounce mode!
Got warmed up and made it to the ring in better time, also caught up with some friends who were extremly supportive and sympathetic of my trouser catastrophe
All went in and had the obligitory walk trot canter etc, res was being really good considering its such a big show and fortunatly in concentrating on him i forget all about the other problem and just got on with the job of keeping him settled and happy. Well, it seemed to work as got pulled into the initial line up first. Didnt quite know what to do with myself with noone on my right, is a scary place out there and almost forgot what i had to do when was first up for the individual show! Shouldnt have worried too much though, he went out really sweetly, had a little blip in the canter when i wasnt sure if he'd changed behind as felt unbalanced, so kept bringing him back to trot when actually i think he was ok and prob lost a mark or two there, but hey ho did a nice extended trot for me which isnt his strong point and was a good boy throughout. Went back in the line up, and was relieved to see trousers still in one piece, just! Res got a bit stroppy being made to wait around while everyone else went in, but eventually we all walked around again and got called back in 5th out of 8. Tad dissapointed with myself as judge clearly liked him and if id just let him canter on would prob have been higher, but thats life and he was such a good boy and made an amazing improvement from previous shows where he's previosly been a nervous wreck by the end. Finally made it back to the lorry and got out of the offending trousers into something much more comfortable, and safe! Need to get the industrial strength needle and thread out now, and start the diet first thing monday
Some pics from the day
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