Sunday 13 May 2018

A full weekend and one of mixed fortunes - The Silver Spur cross country race was completely crazy with loose horses everywhere - Jess got as far as the fourteenth fence before being swiped out by a loose horse and Lily got to fence seventeen before getting her hooves caught in the very wide hedge and coming down. Both horses were absolutely fine and seemed to love doing something different from pointing. Very sadly that was not the case with King of Rainbows at Chaddesley Corbett who sustained a broken shoulder when going really nicely four fences from home. It was the first time that he was beautifully behaved at the start and was jumping like a bunny. Will was doing a fabulous job with letting him see his fences. The ground was perfect so we can only assume that he has always had a weakness in the bone of that shoulder as he was lame on it last year and then it came right. The chiropractor had checked him out, but stress fractures are impossible to diagnose. It was sad for all of us but particularly Peter Bennett the owner, who has been very patient with him, as he has been somewhat quirky to say the least. He will be very much missed as he was a real character and extremely mischievous.
It was difficult to pick ourselves up for Garthorpe but it turned out to be a lovely day. The racing was fabulous with some very exciting finishes. Hannah came third on Beech and Claire and Budge had a fall when absolutely flying five fences from home, Budge was having a lovely time in front but lost his concentration when a horses came upsides him and he over jumped. Both of them are fine and we were very relieved to bring two horses home safe and sound.