Next headed up to Polly Stockton's place in Cheshire to hang out for a few days. My horse Quincey and 2 of my ex horses Sonny (Estrada ) and Lyall are based there. Great to see Sonny again, sadly he is having time out due to injury but Lyall is going awesome at 2* level so that is pleasing . Polly had two adorable hound puppies ( from local hunt ) and while I was watching her school Quincey one day, they were sitting beside me innocently munching on my digital camera and destroyed it . Ooops !!!I headed up to Scotland in my little "bubble" car to attend Blair Castle 3DE and visit my good friend Nicky Roncoroni , based in very beautiful Borders ( border of Scotland and England) . Nicky' new yard is just wonderful and she has a promising team of young horses in her yard.
Arrived at Blair to witness the lorries being towed in through the bottomless mud , yuk !! Rain had been tipping down and it was doubtful if the event could proceed BUT the weather cleared up and the sun and wind came out so that was a blessing. Quincey did a really super dressage test , although we were a bit disappointed with his mark of 53 . The xc in the CCI** was carnage , 20 horses were eliminated or retired !!! I was out on course waiting for Quincey to go and horses were walking home left right and centre so I was getting very, very nervous . Quincey was really brill and still had ears pricked and knees tucked up tight at last fence. What a relief , he was clear and Polly took all straight routes. It was such a tough track and the deep ground conditions and the steep hill did not help. I am very proud of how well he went as he has not even had his 8th NZ birthday yet, so not a bad effort for a young lad.
Sadly Polly withdrew Lyall from xc due to apalling ground conditions so I did not get to see him perform.
SJ day was sunny but ground still like glue in the ring , and Quincey had 2 rails although jumped super well, an unlucky one behind at the last finishing 12th in his first big CI** in very good company.
Caught up with more NZers this weekend including Erik Duvander ( NZ team coach ) over for Burghley, Joe and Deb Meyers, Dan Jocelyn ( I can confirm Dan is a ' innovative ' cook in his lorry !!!) , Andrew Nicolson, Deb Mitchell and hubby Mitch , and Toddy.I had a wee adventure driving back to Cheshire on the sunday night and ended up getting towed for 3 hours by a AA rescue to Manchester airport to get a new car from Hertz . It was kind of nerve wracking with a mad dash to get to Heathrow airport to catch my flight home . I made it though .... phew !!!!
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