It feels as though the season is about to kick off now, it was the Pytchley Opening meet party on Saturday at Hazelbech Hall - we didn't go to the meet as we had too much to do at home, but the party in the evening was great fun.It must have been as two members of our staff sustained 'alcohol related injuries' afterwards, one of which was unable to come in on Monday (she will remain nameless!!) so we were a bit tame in comparison - having said that we were pacing ourselves as Peter Mann's parents had a pre-season lunch party on the Sunday which was a lovely occasion. It was great to catch up with our point to point friends after the off season, which seems to have flown by.

We had an eventful morning with the horses - First of all we went up the gallops with the 'big guns' - Jake, Jess, Whisper, Flash, Ponty and Definite Dawn - They all went really well and are on track to have a run before Christmas. Then we took the youngsters with Dancer as lead horse around the big field. We were just on our second circuit cantering around when I heard a commotion behind me and turned around to see Doug (who was on Ben) heading towards the gate at a very fast rate of knots, when Ben got to the gate he dropped his shoulder and threw Doug onto the gatepost, luckily Doug had got his internal body protector on (!) and he wasn't too badly hurt. The first thing that was said by Jay, before she had even checked that he was still breathing was "Yeah! Five pounds in the drop pot!" and Pete said "No, Ten pounds!" So not much sympathy there, Doug then proceeded to canter Ben around the field but had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction as his trousers had slipped down in the fall and everyone had a wonderful view of a rather hairy bike rack! More hilarity - very amusing....

When we got back we popped some of the youngsters and the video is of Eeyore having his first jump in the school, he was an absolute star but check out Ben having a strop in the middle of the ring with Doug on board (Just!)