Household Cavalry Equestrian and Country Show

Having unfortunately missed this last year I blocked out the majority of July's weekends for this year in order not to double book and miss it again. The Household Cavalry spend some time in Norfolk for their Summer break, the highlight of which (for the locals and those lucky enough to find out about it beforehand) is their Holkham beach visit where horse and riders in large numbers have the best of times in and out of the sea. They don't really broadcast the date of this trip in advance, I guess for obvious reasons of being swamped by visitors and cameras, and so we did actually miss this again this year but hope, one year, we shall be lucky and get to witness what must be an amazing site. You can follow the The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment on Facebook and see all their fabulous pictures.

However, we did get to go along to their Equestrian Show and Country Fair last Sunday. Weather was blooming hot by the time we reached there, around 2ish, and I felt a bit sorry for the riders in all their finery, they must have been very uncomfortable. The atmosphere was amazing - friendly, welcoming and relaxed. We watched the Mirror Image Knockout Competition - something I think should appear at the local shows - such great fun. Two rows of simple jumps and two competing side by side to clear them in the quickest time, against each other. These horses (and perhaps the riders) aren't so used to jumping, so it made for an entertaining show at times (as was the Eventers Grand Prix later in the afternoon).

 After this, and a quick watch of the bird of prey demonstration, we headed off to see the tentpegging. I have to admit, when I saw this listed last year I didn't realise it was a horse activity, the name doesn't really give away what is involved! The steady horse and rider team has to ride at a fast pace, aim and successfully scoop up a couple of hanging rings and then something secured in the ground using a javlin to begin with, and then a sword.

A quick visit to the beer tent for much needed cold refreshments and then a wander through the temporary stables to visit the gorgeous cavalry stars - the horses, including Mercury the adorable drum horse. Stupidly we'd left our packet of polos in the car (and it was a long walk back to it), but those horses certainly didn't miss out, people were handing out treats left, right and centre!

As the sun heated up even more we found a seat and watched the Eventers Grand Prix and then the parade or horses which featured, as a guest star, Joey from the musical War Horse. When the crowd were invited to jump the fence and meet the horses in the parade, the majority went over to see Joey - he was so lifelike and had quite a personality for a puppet horse!

The highlight of the afternoon was of course the Mounted Regiment Musical Ride.


A spectacular show of man and horse working in partnership.



An absolutely brilliant afternoon - will certainly be diarising again for next year.




Photos taken by Katie.

Life at Ellie's Treasures HQ

In the last month we've lost one and seemed to have gained one - pets that is.  Ben's gorgeous fantail fish swam off to watery heaven this week, which is sad but he/she was an fabulous age, probably around 8 years old so I'm guessing it was a natural end.

With one down, another appears.  This fluff ball, who we've named Toscanini seems to have attached herself to us.  She started appearing in the garden a few weeks ago and then she'd made herself at home inside the old rabbit hutch and, of course, I started putting a bit of food out for her as she's quite thin.  Within a few days she was coming closer and closer towards the house asking for her food.  Eventually she wandered in and has now taken residence on the comfy snug chair.  She has a biggish belly, so I'm hoping she's not carrying a litter - guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!  No one has shown signs of looking for her, no posters up in the village or anything and she's not in the best condition.

It was interesting to see how the other cats adapted to her being in the house. Kan, himself once a stray, accepted Tosca immediately and completely ignores her, like he does the others (unless they're in his space).  Tilly was a little wary to begin with and gave her a wide birth but was happy to share the same space to eat.  Pepper, forever the sensitive, was completely put out, hissing and yowling like a demented wild animal, staying out unless he knew the coast was completely Tosca free.  He was so angry with everyone and everything it was more over-the-top than usual for him and eventually we found out why.  He had a huge abscess on his side, bigger than a golf ball.  Luckily we were able to let it drain and he's back to being sensitive but no longer yowling!  He's still a little put out by Tosca, but at least he'll eat in the same room as her now.

Tilly - caught red-handed munching on Poppy's food!

We took Poppy along to Long Sutton show to have a go at the dog show this year.  She did very well a couple of years ago and I thought it would be fun to try and win a rosette (or two) again this time.  Freshly bathed and in her best lead we entered the “prettiest bitch” class along with, perhaps, 30 others.  No contest, didn’t get a look in!  I was going to put her in for “veteran” but got chatting to friends and decided the rosettes weren’t worth the catching up and enjoying all the other horsey activities taking place.  It was a fun afternoon, but very hot.

Jay and Katie have been doing very well with shows.  A few months back Katie decided to take him along to Spalding Riding Club show to just try the clear round to see if Jay was capable of jumping a course of jumps.  He loved it, flew round and they got their clear round rosette.  This spurred Katie on to try a full class and so we took him along to Wisbech & District Riding Club show a month later.  He came fourth in that class, having jumping two clear rounds at 2’.  Last month she took Jay to Tilney Riding Club show and competed against some other horses at 1’9”.  The first round they went clear and were put through to the jump off with four other horses (the class had been split into horses and ponies) and Jay managed the jump off in such a fabulous time that matched that of the ponies.  Mr. Speedy himself I think.  They came first which was absolutely fabulous.
 
Last weekend they took part in a charity pleasure ride and were able to jump a few cross country jumps which was good fun.  Next … back to Spalding show to take part in the 2’ novice class.

Summer = ju-jitsu demonstrations for Ben and his martial arts team and also another grading which means he’s now on first purple belt.  Inching ever closer to the black!  During the summer holidays he’s going to do a three day intensive “gain a grade” session to up two belts at his next grading.

16 years ...

that's my Katie - yep, 16!  She celebrated her birthday yesterday, as everywhere turned white - first snow of the year.

I love the way she knows exactly what she's doing - there are things in her life that she's very passionate about, although you wouldn't really know about them unless you stood back and took it all in.  Working quietly and in her own special way to gain more and more understanding of what she loves - she has goals and she'll reach them.

I love having topical conversations with her and listening to her view point - we've shared a lot and I've learnt a lot from her.

It's not all fabulous!  It often feels like I'm constantly nagging her to work harder - she has grades to reach in order to move along her chosen path.  However, she's proven over the last couple of years that she knows the time frame and she gets to where she needs to be in good time!

Early rises are not her forte, but Katie gets up every morning (unless she has a friend staying over) to go to the yard to muck out, feed and ride Jay.  Her quiet determination to build up Jay's confidence, muscle strength and riding skills have been amazing.

Big changes happening this year with college just around the corner - let's hope 2013 is a fabulous year for her.

Happy birthday Katie.

Life with Jay ...

... is pretty cool!

I thought it was about time I did a Jay update - in fact I can't believe the last entry about Jay was way back in April when he was still on box rest!  I can only put the lack of reporting down to the fact that I also blog on Haynet about all things horse related, so have forgotten to also blog on here!  Anyway, here's an update.

We have been blessed with a relatively smooth 6 months of healing and slowly bringing Jay back into work.  I think the time of year really helped us out too as being late Winter early Spring he wasn't alone in being kept inside due to the weather and by the time he was ready to move back outside the Spring had really sprung and his mates were able to join him outside too.  His 4 week trot up for the vet in April showed that his lameness had more-or-less gone (as far as I can remember), and a schedule of in-hand walking building up to the inevitable back in the saddle went well.  From time to time we ventured out around the surrounding farmland for some of the in-hand walking to keep things interesting and found he wasn't as hyper as he lead us to believe when hacking out at our previous livery yard!  In fact Katie now hacks Jay out quite regularly - he's pretty chilled about it all.

When the big day came to get back into the saddle we were both, naturally, a little nervous.  The yard owner, a fabulous and very confident lady (just what we needed), helped us out in case things got a little exciting!  Luckily Jay was as good as gold and we haven't looked back since. 

His 3 month check over had him signed off and a new riding schedule given to build up the strength in the ligament.  The aim was to get him jumping (tiny jumps) by September.  We've reached that goal now which is brilliant.

It's been nearly a year since we bought Jay and we can't believe how he's changed in that time.  He's a "lovely man" as our yard owner says - such a personality too - and he seems to enjoy his varied riding schedule.  One thing we very quickly worked out is that he certainly tells us when something's not right.  We listen to him now, rather than assume he's being silly!

Katie's next step is to take him to a show - probably a very simple dressage to start with, moving on to jumping when he's done a little more at home.

Updating Ellie's Treasures

A fellow seller and lovely lady, Katelyn of Mad Brilliant Ideas offered to freshen up my banner and avatar - so I jumped at the chance!  We couldn't think of a suitable slogan to start with so once my new art work had been done, I tweeked it alittle and added the new slogan "British made, hand sewn gifts".  What do you think?  Even though I've kept the little hand drawn cottage picture, I think the new look is much fresher than its predecessor.  If you haven't already noticed, I've also done a major blog refurb - do love having a play around (when I find a spare few days).

I've just listed another Union Jack brooch at Ellie's Treasures.  This one is sporting one of my new galloping horse tibetan silver charms.  Perfect for those supporting Team GB equestrian events at this year's Olympics and just as brillliant for all horse lovers who want to show off their British roots whether at home, at the yard or at a show.  Happy to make additional ones too, should anyone need more than one. 



I'm still working away at the new wallet, it's 1/3 finished now and so far it's all going to plan.  Next job is the sew on the front cover embellishments, which shouldn't take too long (now I've decided which ribbons I'll use).  Then the hard part, sewing in the zip(s) - I haven't decided yet if there'll be one or two!  I'll keep you posted on its progress.

Bye for now!

A full and fun week

which started with Katie jumping at Sissons and ended with a day trip to see The Big Bang event at the ExCel in London yesterday.  During the week Ben also had a sleepover with one of his mates which meant being out and about in the car for a couple of days, plus Katie learnt a new skill when giving AJ a hair cut using the clippers on his legs and mane!

So, Sissons then.  It was lovely to have two of Katie's friends came along and watch, one of them filmed the two jumping classes and made up a great music video of Katie and AJ which is now on You Tube.  They came away with a rosette for 4th in the first of the two classes, so all pretty good.  Weather, was dry thankfully (but still very cold) - makes it all so much easier when it's not raining.

The Big Bang event at the ExCel was fabulous.  We first got to hear about it through the HE group quite a few months back, and decided to go along, together with a few other families, to try and better ourselves, and our children, with the knowledge of science!  We certainly weren't let down.  This fair was all about science, and engineering too, and the number of exhibition stalls was overwhelming.  We booked ourselves to see a couple of live stage shows too, Brainiac Live and BBC's Bang Goes the Theory.  Both shows were brilliant, and we were fortunate enough to be seated in the second row for each performance so could experience all the flames, loud bangs and what have you close up (and there were plenty of them).  Looking around the exhibition section it became very apparent very quickly how simple methods are so often used to demonstrate and practise science and engineering skills.  Lego was used on many stalls as well everyday kitchen ingredients and it was lovely to see a whole section dedicated to shapes and models made from tightly rolled newspapers.  It bought back good memories of an HE group session in 2009 where the children constructed a dome using these techniques.


Big smoke rings produced from a giant air bazooka during Brainiac Live.


Ben building an electronic car from Lego.


Bang Goes the Theory - demonstrating the power of methane.


Ben looking thrilled to hear there will be very loud bangs during the Brainiac performance.


Graceful flying silver penguins - don't ask me how they do it, lots of big brain stuff no doubt!

And finally ... here's Katie getting to grips with AJ's mane.   It's amazing how quickly it grows, having only been trimmed about 3 or 4 weeks ago!  She also used the clippers to trim the lower part of his legs and a few whiskers under his chin.  For a first go she did brilliantly.  I think if I got hold of those clippers I'd be giving him an all over shave - the power!

Sharing this ...

lovely pencil drawing Katie did the other day.  She hasn't used her art tools for several months so it was lovely to see the sketch book out and a fresh drawing created.

Jumping at Elms Farm

We took AJ out in the trailer to Elms Farm Equestrian Centre at Claythorpe last Sunday to take part in some jumping.  It was an early start (not good), but luckily with the clocks going back it did give us an extra hour in bed, although it didn't feel like it, rising at 5.30 a.m.!

This is the second trip in the new trailer for AJ.  Last time he was perfectly happy to travel in it, even though it is a slightly smaller model than the one he is used to.  This time, he seemed fine getting in and, as always, fine for most of the journey until the last 5 minutes when he really started kicking up a fuss.  It's not pleasant pulling a trailer that periodically bumps around!  We weren't able to stop and check on him as the road was very narrow with no passing places.  We hoped he was just have a bit of a paddy as we'd decided not to give him any hay for his journey as he'd had quite a lot before the trip and he would be going straight into the first class without much hanging around.  When we got to Elms Farm and opened the jockey door to check on him, he was quite het up and had completely wrecked one of his back travelling boots - shredded to bits - and in the process had managed to cut his leg.  After using several small bottles of water to wash the wound, and a quick phone call to his owner (and also giving him the hay to calm him down!), we decided he was still OK to enter the jumping classes.  Needless to say, without his travelling boots on to go home (which he's always disliked), just his normal jumping ones, he was perfectly OK (oh, and he also had his hay).  Two lessons learnt I think: (1) take some kind of basic horse first aid - you never know when it may be needed and  (2) always give the chap some hay for his journey!

The classes were good.  Clear Round was successful (Katie enters these as a warm up) and they also cleared the 65cm class meaning Katie and AJ were able to go onto the second, jump-off, round, which they also cleared (at a not very speedy 52 seconds!).  She and AJ came 5th which means, as this class is a UK Riders Qualifer, they'll go on to the next round, the Regional Finals, which takes place in June next year.  Lots of time to get his speed up - we hope!

A little catch up ...

The summer hols seems to whizz by, as every day, week and month does these days!  We started off well, continuing with our daily maths and some other bits and bobs, but that petered off towards the middle of August!

Katie had a week with my Mum and Dad and had a great time shopping most days!  A teenager's dream I'd say.  While she was away, we set too dismantling her high-rise sleeper, pulled apart the bunk beds in Ben's room and rearranged both hers, and Ben's rooms completely.  Both look great now, and both are happy with their new beds.  During this mega tidy up and furniture shifting (which resulted in several bags of rubbish - yippee), Ben rediscovered his love of maps and puzzles and put the two together, with me reading information from the atlas as he beavered away.

Also, during Katie's week away, Ben and I tootled down to Hunstanton to have a go on some of the fun fairground rides and also visit the Sea Life Centre there.  We were so lucky with the weather, picking probably the driest and warmest day of the week for our visit.  Had a super time and really enjoyed seeing the fish and other underwater creatures as well as the otters at feeding time and Ben's all time favourites, the penguins.  We both endeavoured to take photographs (no flashes allowed), but naturally it was quite difficult capturing anything that moves rather swiftly!  I've salvaged a few for you to see.



We have now bought a second-hand horse trailer to ferry Katie and AJ off to a few shows.  It was going to become hard to get hire trailer insurance for the one we used to borrow, so it made sense to look for our own.  We travelled a fair few miles sourcing the "perfect" trailer, and, with the additional cost of several evening meals out (because it was always late by the time we hit near home), it probably would have been cheaper to just buy a brand new one!  Anyway, Paul and I could easily answer questions for Mastermind on the ins-and-outs of the Ifor Williams Horse Trailer from 1990 - present day and quite sadly we have been pointing out various ones (and other makes too) and naming their make and model number during our said trips - how sad is that!!

Katie competed at Sheepgate Equestrian yesterday doing dressage.  There were quite a few in her class and although she didn't place (1st - 6th), she got quite a good score and rode very well.  We're waiting to get her membership approved for Pony Club - she's very eager to take part in their fun activities and competitions.


I've been fitting in some sewing in the evenings, and am planning a few new items to sell for Christmas.  Katie's done some sewing too.  We found a lovely tutorial on Angel Eden's lovely blog to make this pretty flower.  Here's the finished item - I love the material she's chosen.  She's decided to sew it to a hairband, rather than make it into a brooch.

We're back to work now, with maths top of the list and history following close behind.  Art always seems to feature too, and I'm hoping to throw in a sizeable amount of English as well.  Katie and her friend are aiming to take their foundation GCSE maths next summer.  Although they'll only be 14, I'm going to see if, by Christmas, I feel if Katie's ready for it.  Having finished the KS3 maths syllabus with Katie and Ben within a year, the foundation maths doesn't seem that much harder, so I'm sure she'll be OK.

A couple of horse shows ...

have taken place during the last couple of weeks.  Our first was an evening show jumping competition at Sissons Farm which was really well attended.  This is our first jumping show with AJ, and although we had a sneaky feeling he wouldn't get placed (as he's a little too slow), we went along for the fun and the experience.

Katie and AJ did extremely well.  She went in for the clear round jumping first, purely so AJ could get a feel for the jumps that would be used for the actual 2' 3"  class.  He refused the double jump (two jumps close together) (which was to be expected as they had bright yellow wings), but he went over it second time around.  Unfortunately this meant it wasn't a clear round, so Katie didn't get a rosette.

Loads of people went in for the actually jumping class and, big mistake on my part, Katie was first one in the ring.  For this competition they had to go straight into a "jump off" of 5 jumps should they first get a clear round of all the jumps.  They did get the clear round, which was fabulous, but sadly Katie forgot to jump one of the jumps in the jump off which was an immediate elimination.  She hadn't realised her mistake at first, but was devastated when she found out.  AJ's jump off time was pretty slow, so the chances are they wouldn't have placed anyway.  Can only say, "it's one of those things" and hopefully a lesson has been learnt for next time, i.e. we won't put her first in a class and she should take more time to learn the jump off course (she only had about 5 mins warning of this before she went into the ring).  Anyway, it was a good evening all round and we shall hopefully go again very soon.

Tacking up

Her second show, last Sunday, was at Sheepgate.  This time she and AJ entered the 2' Working Hunter class.  For this they needed to do a small course of jumps followed by a small show of walk, trot and canter in front of the judges.  There were 7 in her class and she was over-the-moon to be placed 3rd.  She looked stunning too in her new hacking jacket - bit of a story behind that, but I won't bore you with the details!!  A professional photographer was on-hand to take photos for this event, and there's some lovely ones on his website showing Katie and AJ doing their stuff.

In the warm up ring