I have recently returned from a few days away with my parents, hence the lack of postings - Mum is not very well now and is sadly confined to a wheelchair, which is hard to witness as she was such an active person before and it has all happened so quickly. However, she remains incredibly cheerful - On one of the days Jay and I pushed her around a nature reserve near to where they were staying, in the Canterbury area - the wheels got really clogged with mud and at one stage we got completely bogged and all three of us collapsed into giggles - We then got her out and Jay was whizzing along with her when she hit a bump, assuming the wheelchair would go over the top of it, but it didn't and came to a very sharp stop nearly firing Mum out the front - More hilarity but very lucky she had her safety belt on!
It has been pouring with rain for most of the week and I have completely messed up with entries in that I entered all our good ground horses for this week-ends racing and not the soft ground horses - hence we only had one runner on Saturday, and that was Velvet Cloud, who ideally would have liked it top of the ground, but as she has been so lively/naughty at home it was time for her to have her first run no matter what the ground was like.
It was her first time in the trailer so we took Harry as company, and when she got to the racecourse her eyes were out on stalks - She refused to go past the bouncy castle on her way to the paddock, and was very nervous of the ice cream van, but looked really quite grown up walking around the paddock. A number of people commented on her as she is extremely eye catching. Toby had the 'pleasure' of riding her, and on the way down to the start she shied at the camera man and dumped him - luckily he hung onto her and after a quick check up from the Doctor he managed to get her down to the start.
The race was run at a furious pace and must have been a bit scary for her, but she kept up with the field, and despite making a complete horlicks of the open ditch was going really well until two horses slipped over in front of her and she got badly hampered - She was then detached from the rest of the horses and became rather deliberate at her fences so Toby very wisely pulled her up half a mile from home. We were delighted with her first run. We hadn't done much preparation work with her as she was going to be sold as a polo pony, but then suddenly showed us that she had got a real turn of foot and loves to jump, so just in the last few weeks we have started treating her like a racehorse. She has come out of the race really well and I have a feeling there is a lot more to come yet.
We have a wet week in front of us and this time I have entered the right horses for the conditions - at this stage Laverty and Harry are going to Whitfield and Paddy,Aitch and less likely Moonie are going to Garthorpe. We have entered Jake for Saturday but all being well he will be going to Cheltenham on May 2nd....
It has been pouring with rain for most of the week and I have completely messed up with entries in that I entered all our good ground horses for this week-ends racing and not the soft ground horses - hence we only had one runner on Saturday, and that was Velvet Cloud, who ideally would have liked it top of the ground, but as she has been so lively/naughty at home it was time for her to have her first run no matter what the ground was like.
It was her first time in the trailer so we took Harry as company, and when she got to the racecourse her eyes were out on stalks - She refused to go past the bouncy castle on her way to the paddock, and was very nervous of the ice cream van, but looked really quite grown up walking around the paddock. A number of people commented on her as she is extremely eye catching. Toby had the 'pleasure' of riding her, and on the way down to the start she shied at the camera man and dumped him - luckily he hung onto her and after a quick check up from the Doctor he managed to get her down to the start.
The race was run at a furious pace and must have been a bit scary for her, but she kept up with the field, and despite making a complete horlicks of the open ditch was going really well until two horses slipped over in front of her and she got badly hampered - She was then detached from the rest of the horses and became rather deliberate at her fences so Toby very wisely pulled her up half a mile from home. We were delighted with her first run. We hadn't done much preparation work with her as she was going to be sold as a polo pony, but then suddenly showed us that she had got a real turn of foot and loves to jump, so just in the last few weeks we have started treating her like a racehorse. She has come out of the race really well and I have a feeling there is a lot more to come yet.
We have a wet week in front of us and this time I have entered the right horses for the conditions - at this stage Laverty and Harry are going to Whitfield and Paddy,Aitch and less likely Moonie are going to Garthorpe. We have entered Jake for Saturday but all being well he will be going to Cheltenham on May 2nd....
