Big catch up

Well since the last post the hay has been cut and we've spent a few weeks on holiday in France and London.

The hay got cut just before we went away, in the last week of February. We were very lucky with the weather and got the last of it into the shed just as the rain was starting to fall, literally. The guys we hired to stack it in the shed were not the greatest, was very painful watching them load up their truck, taking over an hour to get 50 bales from the paddock to the shed. In the end a couple of mates, Ellie and Nic came round to save our bacon and Ben drove my truck with our teeny tiny trailer on the back and we got 80 bales into the shed in an hour, not bad really. The hay contractor also came back and helped out with his massive trailer and tractor. Really good of him to do so as he didn't have to at all but I think he realised there was no way the hay would be in before the rain otherwise.

We didn't get as much as last year, no surprises there though. Will be fertilising the paddock soon, that should bump up next year's crop!

We headed off on holidays in the first week of March, to spend 2 1/2 weeks travelling in France and heading over to London for a few days to see Ben's sisters. Had a fab time, drank lots of yummy wine and champagne, ate lots and spent waaaay too much. Blimmin rubbish Euro exchange rate made things even more expensive!

Back into it now though, and we're about to get the vege garden ready for winter and hopefully buy some weaners soon. Although given that we spent too much on holiday I'm not sure how that's quite going to happen, lol

Me and Oscar are doing our first ODE on Saturday too, which I am a bit nervous about. He loves jumping and is not too bad at it for a green horse but just worried he will be a bit silly about going away from his buddy Bert who will be there with Sarah. Ah well it will all be good for my riding I suppose! The goal of the day is just to finish it all - in one piece... I am not expecting anything other than that and going by his freak out at jumping over a log next to a really scary water trough last night at adult ride we may have a few stops. Three refusals and it's elimination but you can usually carry on and complete the course. At least the dressage test is dead easy!

We had a great jumping lesson before I went away, got up to jumping 65cm which is huuuuge for me. He was jumping really nicely too, made it really easy for me. Have another lesson today and then a day off for both of us before the ODE.

Will hopefully have ODE pics to post later, if I can con someone into being team photographer on Saturday!