Early on Tuesday morning, Carole and I took Darcy to Brooksby College for her first BD affiliated show and her first show away from home. As is Darcy's way, she as an absolute sweetie and we won our test and the judge even felt moved to wind the window down and tell me what a beautiful horse she was and how much potential she has for the future!
Also in the class was my Chiropractor, Annie Wright and her little horse Po. Po did a lovely test and came second to Darcy in one class and then went onto win her second test. It was Annie and Po's first time competing at Affiliated BD level. We all had a fantastic (if rather cold!) morning!

So pleased, after Whoop being a star at Vale View's Para Festival, to top off a great week we got our photo and a little write up in Horse and Hound Magazine! It's the third time we have been included in the last 6 months!
Thank you to Madeleine Hill for putting us in!

Whoop and I had a great time at the Winter Para Festival! The weather was truly dreadful but the atmosphere was warm and friendly.

We left the yard at 6.30am yesterday morning to be at Vale View in good time for the Arena Walk and then settled Whoop into his day stable. He had his breakfast and tucked into his HorseHage before Mum got him plaited and ready.

Our first test was at 3.25, the Hickstead Open British Championship qualifier, the Grade 3 Individual Championship test. Whoop was a little spooky when we went into the International Arena but he settled and we produced a Personal Best test of 71.5% from International Judge, John Robinson. That put us top of the class!

In the evening, 6.30, we did our Freestyle test. The rain was bucketing it down so the organisers let us warm up in the other indoor arena. We got absolutely soaked to the skin on the walk between arenas. I put my hand up for the music to start and all I could hear was the rain hammering on the roof! Because I couldn't hear the markers in my music we got majorly infront of it and I had to improvise to enable us to finish on the centreline. Even with these challenges we won this test too with a very respectable 71.375%!

The Para Festival is a lovely friendly show. It was great to get the chance to catch-up with old friends and meet the next generation of riders doing the Talent Spotting competition.  

Oh, I'm sick of this grotty weather! We had a really busy week planned for Whoop, 4 shows including the Winter Para Festival at Vale View. So far we have decided not to go to two of them. It has been so cold, wet and now windy that I can't see the point of souring Whoop to competing just for a few qualification points.

Hopefully, the weather will cheer up so that we can have fun at Keysoe on Wednesday and Vale View on Saturday.

I am so fortunate to have such a lovely indoor school at Laughton Livery Centre. It has enabled me to keep both horses fit, happy and in work even through this nasty winter.

We have so much to look forward to this year, great adventures and shows on the cards. So exciting, first stop on this crazy train ride the BD Winter Open Nirvana Spa Para National Champs on April 10, lets hope the weather gets its act together soon!