Our BIG day Saturday

A sign of things to come? Washing line of horse boots and rider's gloves!

Saturday was a BIG day for us - it was the first time we'd taken Katie's share pony, AJ, to a show with us towing the trailer! I've been quite stressed about the whole thing ever since Katie first put the feelers out that perhaps we could borrow the yard owner's trailer and start taking him to shows by ourselves. Once the trailer insurance was sorted I wasn't quite so nervous, but then I wasn't driving!!



The amount of stuff we had to take with us was stunning! We'd taken the tack home Friday night and Katie spent a good couple of hours giving it a thorough clean. I'd washed all AJ's boots and all Katie's gloves (she didn't know which pair to wear LOL) as well as all the grooming brushes etc. on Thursday. Luckily all her show gear was clean and ready to go, but there were still two pairs of boots to clean (again, she didn't know which pair to wear, the long boots or the short, which also meant her chaps needed to be washed, just in case!).

Saturday morning fast approached and we left for the yard at 8 a.m. (as luckily her dressage test was 11:40) and we were away with AJ at the agreed time of 9:30. It was lovely that his owner Jo came along too, having an experienced person with us was great.

For his trip in the trailer, AJ wore tall travelling boots, which he was not at all happy about! I don't think he'd worn them before and initially he refused to come out of his stable. When he did take his first steps he was lifting up his hind legs as if he had splints on them!


The journey was fine, with Paul driving (apparently feeling very nervous) and we reached our destination - Sheepgate Equestrian - in very good time. We browsed their wonderful Tack and Togs shop and later Katie and her friend found bargain Joules tops in the sale section which they both bought. We could have spent an absolute fortune in there, they had such a huge selection of clothing, boots, tack, horsey gear and gifts.

It was bitterly cold and we were pleased the dressage was held indoors where we could sit in the cafe to keep warm. We spent most of the time in the cafe actually, lots of hot drinks and plenty of fast food to keep us going!

We were thrilled that Katie came 6th in her dressage test with a score of 61.20%. She was up against 9 others, some of whom were quite advanced. After lunch she did a couple of jumping clear rounds, raising the bars alittle between them, bringing home 3 rosettes in all.

We were back at the yard by 4 p.m., just in time of AJ's tea! We were all shattered mentally I think and needed a good night's sleep. But before we got that far, we treated ourselves to an Indian at our favourite restaurant.