Fun & showing

Serious sunsets during the heatwave

 It took awhile to recover after the mentalness of that weekend of competitions( Manic Monday).........but luckily for me I'd taken a few days off to go on a horsey holiday in Wicklow. So I packed up the boys and we headed for the East coast. 3 hours later we arrived at our first stop, the Munny Trail.

I met my friends there; Trish, Ashling and Niamh, with their horses. Unfortunately because the weather had been ridiculously hot the ground had gotten pretty hard, so instead of jumping the XC like we'd originally planned, we just hacked around. The views there are unreal. You can see for miles once you get to the top of the hills. It was a beautiful day too. I rode Fred for it and Cu Chulainn chilled in the stable while we went out for a few hours.

Myself & CC just mucking around

Isn't he just gorgeous?!

Fun in the sun!

Post shower/hose down!

We parted ways after and myself and the boys went up to Trish's. We left the boys to make friends with her shetlands, while we went home via the takeaway. The next day I brought CC for a hack out with her horse, Boots. It was lovely and chilled. Then we went shopping to TRI and Holmestead. I was a good girl and only bought the magic cream I use on myself (arnica & witch hazel).

I headed back West on Friday as we were entered in the Ardrahan show on Saturday. A show I'd never been to before. I got them all cleaned up and on Saturday morning we headed off nice and early. I took the motorway just for piece of mind. We got there and I'd obviously gotten it mixed up with another show, because I thought the working hunter wasn't on till the afternoon, but it had already started when we got there. Slight panic stations. Threw the tack on CC and raced over. I only got to do a few warm up jumps and in we went. I just about knew the course. He had one down, which was unfortunate. I brought him back and tacked up Fred, he was doing the novice course. That was a bit of a disaster and I retired. I just hadn't enough practice done with him and he still isn't confident with his jumping. Next up was the lightweight hunter. There was only 2 in it, but Fred behaved impeccably and he got his first 1st in showing. Delighted!! Then it was time for the coloured class. CC had been really good earlier and quiet for his show piece, but he was wired by the time the Coloured class came around. He didn't place, but I was happy with our day. I went to see if he placed anywhere in the WH, but someone had falled off and that was all stopped up. So we packed up and went home. 

Chill time

Why so serious?!

 I promised myself the next weekend off as it'd be the last for a long time. When I say off, I mean off from competitions. Fred still got ridden. CC was off on holidays for a few weeks and wouldn't be back until the Tullamore show. I'd decided to enter Fred in the Spruce Lodge dressage classic the August bank holiday, so we had some work to do.

Ready for our hack

Checking out the barley