Lauren Shannon’s eventing blog: breaking ground on our new yard
Well, the weather seems to be calming down at last, which is good for us eventers as things are starting to get busy.
As soon as we’ve celebrated the New Year, I think every eventer is shocked by how close the beginning of the season seems. It is nice to feel the sense of anticipation as we trundle through January and February’s dull days, and definitely helps you to get out of bed in the morning when you’ve got a long “to-do” list.
All the horses are now back in work, including the youngsters and eventers. I managed to bang my leg last week, which meant a few days out of the saddle, but I have been back riding and having dressage lessons this last week. I have jumped a few of the horses in the past week too, but my lower leg is still really bruised, so plans for arena eventing this weekend are probably on hold.
This week is actually the most anticipated of the whole year, as tomorrow we welcome Elmtree Construction to the yard to break ground on our new yard here at home. I cannot wait to get started, and I think the past few months have crawled by painfully slowly in anticipation on purpose!
We are planning on building an American barn, a covered walker and a 60x30m outdoor school in the next few months. It is everyone’s dream to be able to work from home and have something of your own outside your door, so I feel very lucky to be able to do it. We live on the Nottinghamshire/Leicestershire border, which is a hugely horse mad area, so I feel like we are making a very good move.
The only downside to our build is that it will make the next few months even busier than they normally are. However, I struggle to think of an ideal time to do anything in this job!
Although the next few months will be hard work, having professional ground works specialists in Elmtree Construction, and a brilliant craftsman in our stable and barn builder, Hancox Equestrian, I think we will manage to come out the other side incredibly happy with our new yard! Now, I think I have to get hold of some bubbles to crack on the first digger when we start…
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Lauren
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Event rider Lauren Shannon blogged on Horseandhound.co.uk from June 2011 until September 2014. Born in Brighton, she lived in America from the age of three to 16, returning to the UK to go to university after she finished school. After university she worked for Mark and Tanya Kyle before setting up her own yard in Leicestershire. Her best result to date was finishing 9th at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials with her top horse, Zero Flight.