That last post should have gone out on Thursday but somehow I forgot to press the publish button! Anyway, another very frustrating weekend with all the meetings being called off. We went to the Burton Hunt Ball last night with the intention of having the horses brought up the following day for the racing - Christopher had his usual huge support group from Essex who had all come up mainly to see Christopher's race and who were terribly disappointed having very much enjoyed the 'Padfield entertainment' last year. when Christopher was having his first ride and when his name was called over the loud speaker no less than seven times Three times because he was 12 lbs overweight, once because of a change of colours as he had cut off the bit that ties the silk on as he thought it looked 'pouffy', then because he missed the first fence out and then re-joined the field with the subsequent stewards enquiry and lastly with the results of the enquiry. He was quite a celebrity by the time the day had ended!
The really annoying part was that when we left this morning and drove past the point to point course there wasn't a flake of snow to be seen - It had quite incredibly all disappeared overnight.

On Friday morning we took some horses to the indoor school including the new horse (Jake's cousin) It was her first time ever over poles and we were delighted with her. She only lost it once and it is mainly because she just doesn't understand what is expected of her.
Faye is on the lead horse, Dancer, and Pete is on the new horse in the first clip and Ponty in the second

We will be entering up everywhere for next week-end in the hope of getting a run into them. The plan is for Jake and Popaway to go to the rescheduled meeting at Chipley Park on Saturday the 2nd and then possibly Jess and Dancer to Horseheath on Sunday - We were thinking of putting Dancer in the Ladies race as it would be good for Faye to have a ride and also to get a race into Dancer without putting her up against our many restricted horses - However, if Chipley Park is off due to flooding then we will also enter Popaway and Jake for Brocklesby and Horseheath as they seriously need to have a run. The Burton have rescheduled their meeting for the 10th of February which is a bit of a pain as I had bought tickets for the Ireland v England six nations rugby match in Dublin on that day plus booked the flights and was really looking forward to a couple of days away, but we just can't miss Christopher's members race and maybe his first completion!..... We will probably take Ponty on that day as well and then enter Whisper for Larkhill on the 9th as sadly Whitfield has been called off. We are spending a small fortune on entry fees as they don't get refunded if the meeting has been abandoned but I guess the hunts still need the money.