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Royal Windsor Horse Show- Well we set off in the drizzly mist and soon arrived in the lovely setting of Windsor. It took nearly as long to get into the show ground as it did to arrive, but we managed to negotiate our way into the lorry park with little trouble! William Whittaker happened to arrive at the same time and managed to park his car directly in front of our lorry! We then spent the next few minutes star lorry spotting as pretty much next door were Tim Stockdale, Mark Armstrong and Carl Hester! We then collected our passes and made the long trek up to the rings to see what was happening. By the time we got back to the lorry - smurph was a jibbering wreck as the carriage driving had started up and four in hands were speeding past the bottom of the ramp! The only answer was to get him out and about and so I spent the next hour and half riding around the lorry park as he wouldn't stand or calm down even for polos! Getting near his back end when he is in this state is always a challenge, so Tom managed to brave his kicks with the blue rinse shampoo and the chalk, to remove the stable stains which had occured in the lorry. After all of this we got very little time to look round the show, but we did catch a glimpse of the morning jumping class. It was then time to get ready and make the long trip up to the rings. Getting there again proved to be a challenge as we had to pass under a stone bridge by the river Thames. The echoes sent Smurph a little wild and he managed to career througha team of six driving ponies in the process. Luckily the ring was running twenty minutes late which gave us time to calm down a bit, although the funfair and general atmosphere didn't help much! Fortunately Smurph is normally quite laid back and this added spark helped a little when riding with no spurs or whip! When we came to do our test the marching band were in full flow practising for the evening, as were the aircraft and grand prix dressage horses! He actually did an OK test with room for improvement, but I was pleased with what he did! In the end we came fourteenth, just a few marks behind the placings to tenth. Getting back to the lorry proved more challenging as the teams of driving horses were then on course and Smurph had become once again a gibbering wreck! He was however in good company as one of the grand prix dressage horses accompanied him down the long walk home!

Stockland Lovell - well we made the 4 hour journey down to Somerset and arrived in good weather. It was a bit of a troubled start with minor snags occuring all day and I was wondering if it was all worth it! Benjy was camping in the lorry for the first time and after a somewhat unsettled night! We woke up to torrential rain at 5 am! this was to herald the start of a VERY wet day! With two horses and a baby we were kept on our toes!!! Smurph started the dressage and had a good test, benefitting from the help of the BE trainer who was very good! It did however pur down just as I went in and as you can see from the pictures, every phase was a wash out! He scored a respectable 33 and was 2nd after dressage. Harmony only had about 10 mins to warm up which actually prved useful as she didn't get time to get her knickers in a twist! She did however whinny and got an OK 35 which left her somewhere in the top ten in her section. SJ was luckily on a surface and clears seemed to be quite few and far between. Both horses did a lovely clear round. XC was slippery and running late. Smurph was 2nd to go and did a lovely clear, only to come home with 14 !!!!! time faults - arghhhh This knocked him from 1st down to 7th! BUT out of 2 sections only 2 people got inside the time - (a little bit of a problem with the measuring me thinks! Having the benift of hindsight I put my foot down on Harmony and still came home with 2 time faults!!! This is pretty much unheard of so I am not sure what they were doing?In fact last time she wa shere she got 7 for going too fast!!! Harmony ended up winning and got some lovely prizes! All our tack was so wet and muddy it was ridiculous - the push chair needed to go to the jet wash - but in the end we had a good time!

Last weekend we wernt to Fairoak and did the pairs with harmony and Smurph. They both went well and Tom particulalry enjoyed riding Smurph. We came third! This weekend we went to Badminton to watch and that was good! This week we have Royal Windsor and Stockland Lovell followed by lots of schooling and some more eventing!

Tom has got a new tractor and its not bad!! He has been doing some groundwork at our house and pulled out some trees! Benjy enjoyed watching what was going on, until Tom managed to clip the side of the conservatory with the bucket! Fortunately the conservatory is being replaced shortly!