21 August 2013
It’s harvest time at last!! For anyone who is a farmer’s
daughter, son, girlfriend, boyfriend, wife husband etc etc etc you will know
how stressful August can be, especially after the unpredictable weather we have
had recently. Being a farmer’s fiancé is certainly no different so I breathed a
sigh of relief when Jim text me yesterday to say that the combine was revved up
and things were in full swing. It was also a lovely sight to see the combine
making its way up and down dad’s fields when I arrived there to ride last night
(mainly as I know it heralds the start of the stubble fields and the chance to
get the horses out for a good hoof around!), I wasted no time and hit the
stubbles last night with Alfie!
Since my last blog, Herbie has had a couple of weeks rest as
he’s only 5 and has had a busy season thus far, for Alfie though it was up to
Skipton for one of my favourite events of the season. We had the pleasure of
Jim (my fiancé), my dad and my brother all there to support which was lovely.
Alfie had had a silly stop cross country at Breckenbrough the week before so I
was over the moon with his performance at Skipton. He did a lovely dressage
test, leaving him 3rd in a very competitive section, he then went on
to post a foot perfect double clear inside the time to leave us 2nd.
He felt on flying form and is now entered to do his second novice at Richmond
at the end of the month.
Herbie has now finished his holidays and is back in work, we
have had some really productive sessions with him especially over fences with
him negotiating some especially complicated grids. It’s a really nice feeling
for a young horse to make a couple of mistakes and then come back and learn
from them. He is showing the right attitude and intelligence at this stage
which is lovely. Herbie is also heading up to Richmond to do his first BE100 so
it will be a busy old weekend for us but I’m very excited to see how both
horses cope with the more demanding questions.
Both boys are as cheeky as ever, Herbie is such an attention
seeker and has taken to picking up anything he can get his teeth into, last
week he managed to lean over his stable door and pick up the wheel barrow,
unfortunately he didn’t fancy doing the mucking out whilst he was at it!
I’m very much looking forward to a big finish to the season
with Herbie stepping up a class and Alfie contesting his regional finals for Badminton;
let’s hope they’re both on top form!!
Best wishes,
‘Team Cawood’
