There’s less than a week to go until we will be at the Mitsubishi Motors Cup at Badminton! The numbers are out; I received a text on Thursday saying my entry had been accepted and I will be number 208, so relatively early in the BE100 section.
As usual, everything always happens at once and it looks like I now might have a ride in an amateur race at Wolverhampton on Monday afternoon. So plan A is that a friend might drive the lorry to Badminton and meet mum there and unload and I’ll head there after. We will see as things always change. I aim to get there on the Monday, to unload, get Freddie and Murphy settled in their boxes, then to give them a hack out Tuesday morning, to get them settled and we can soak up the beautiful estate and atmosphere. I am not sure yet if my dressage will be Tuesday or Wednesday, but Freddie’s Burghley Young Event Horse class is on Wednesday morning, so we will be busy! The cross-country course pictures are out and it definitely looks meaty, with a few questions; there is coursewalks with legendary Mary King and Yogi Breisner.
I was very lucky to have the 24-hour flu bug, which is going around, last Sunday as next Sunday would of been a disaster! I still managed to give my horses a mile canter, then head back to bed — no chocolate for me over Easter.
I withdrew from Horseheath last Saturday — with no rain the ground was just very hard there. We went for a training lesson with Murph and Hyacint at Vale View with Caroline Moore, with some test practice with Ian Woodhead in the afternoon (I think Murph might know the test too by now!). See the video below of a few clips of him jumping!
This week he will have one jump on the grass, a dressage day at Keysoe on Wednesday, followed by a canter day then just a general easy few days before our departure next Monday. He will have the physio to check him out to make sure everything is squeaky smooth, so no excuses!
Murph doing his stretches
I am fortunate to have a nice lorry — the video below gives you a tour of it. It means there is not an awful lot of packing to do, as most things are on board. We just need to make sure things are clean, the water tank is full and of course that we have plenty of food — I shouldn’t forget anything, as there is nothing worse when you get to an event and you have forgotten something — it can just put everything out of sync. Of course we will have to pack hay, feed and rugs for Murph and Freddie who is number four in the BYEH.
I have a great support team coming to support me; my mum, family, my other half, Johnny and some great friends — Amy Murphy is swapping training horses to come and cheer us on too. I have two lorry dogs Puzzle, a pint-size terrier, and Ugg the Bulldog, but I do not think she will be coming as she snores too loudly and we all need sleep!
Ugg
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You might also be interested in:
Alice and Murph’s Mitsubishi Motors Cup blog: on the verge of tears
Alice explains how she manages to fit everything into her day
Subscribe to Horse & Hound this spring for great savings
Look out for us next week, as we arrive at Badminton, new of how we got on at Wolverhampton, thoughts of the estate and to see Murph settled in his new surroundings — we might find a cape to hang outside his stable!
Alice
Don’t miss H&H’s Badminton preview issue, including cross-country course walk with world champion Ros Canter (out 25 April), and our form guide issue with details of every horse and rider competing (out 2 May).
