Chillax Week

Well early morning ride out was non-existent last week.....my cold kicked in and I was comatose at night, so too hard to get up in the morning. I had planned on giving Fred a few days off anyway as he'd had a harder day having to hack over to the final and home again. The jeep didn't get picked up until Wednesday. So I was being ferried to work by my Mam ( thanks Mam!), felt like I was back in school again.

So the boys had quite an easy week. We went over the road on Thursday to the indoor. I arrived and realised I'd forgotten my hat......dope.  I tacked Fred up and headed down to the arena.........and then realised I'd no stirrups on my saddle..........absolutely brain dead that night apparently!! I borrowed a hat and rode him for 20 mins with no stirrups. He went well, but my god did I pay for that hardship ( choice of underwear was not good 👀. A friend gave me stirrups and I did a bit more with him. Then it was CC's turn. There was a grid set up, so we did that in a lesson. Jumping it both ways, sometimes with a placing pole, as he is rushing it sometimes. But he was great overall. Delighted with his progress.



My big ass wheelbarrow arrived this week!! My god, it's like a normal wheelbarrow on steroids!! I got the 2 stables mucked out in one wheelbarrow load, but it was a bit difficult to unload....I was just doing the lazy man's load to see if I could get it all in one!



With the water hooked up in the stable and the new wheelbarrow, life is much easier in the evenings. Cu Chulainn still prefers to drink out of Fred's water, for some strange reason......The cats are keeping the vermin away, Rusty is stealing the horse's food droppings whenever he can.........


On Friday I picked up my new jeep. I went from a commercial to a passenger one. Absolutely delighted with the little zinger of a jeep. We'll have to see how she gets on with towing, but she should be powerful enough, lord knows she'll be tested!! I generally tow 4 days a week. The comfort of knowing that it's going to start in the morning is unreal. Rusty is not impressed though as he can't see out the windows!


Last weekend I did zilch riding.........that was not the plan. But I had friends over on Friday and there was much chat and alcohol and then Saturday was almost a write off in the lazy factor........I did do a big muck out. But that was just about it. Then Saturday night I was out again, so Sunday was pretty much the same. My friend had pulled out of doing XC, and I know I do very little by myself. I decided they'd have a hard week ahead, so I'd let them have the weekend off.


On Monday, I brought Cu Chulainn over the road to practice jumping. Also, to see what the jeep would be like towing. He's a good traveller and it's easier to test it with just one of the horses. It was easy as pie! Bar the manual gearbox - last jeep was automatic and piss easy to tow with. But the jeep was well able, no hardship at all. Cu Chulainn was tense and anxious. There were moments of chill, but in general he just was having an off day. He spooked at a jacket on the side...... we jumped a course for the first time since November and he was super. I think he thought he saw a spider a few times because he jumped twice the height!!  I was delighted with him. We were just walking along while another lady did the course and she fell off her horse, but as she was falling Cu Chulainn freaked out, WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING HERE?!!? It was kinda funny - after I made sure I wasn't joining her on the ground!


Tuesday was my birthday, so I got up extra early to ride Fred. It was lashing rain. So I put all my raingear on and went out. Nothing was stopping me today. So had a lovely 20 mins to start my birthday day.

I've a lesson organised with my hardcore instructor for tomorrow night, but there's supposed to be a storm coming in, so I'm not sure if her arena will be ok. If not, I'll go over the road to practice. We have a Dressage Ireland competition on Saturday and both tests are in 20x60 arenas. Poor CC has never been in one of those. It also means a lot to remember........ I woke up in the middle of the night last night, so was going through the prelim test in my head. I can only remember the very start of the novice one. So a bit of hard work in the memory stakes ahead.......be graaaanndddddd........eeek 👀👀 

This is the video of Cu Chulainn in the dressage final, isn't he fantastic? 😀😀 Ok, so I'm biased.
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