Lauren Shannon’s eventing blog: who else can I tell about my new yard?
I have decided already that I won’t mention the fact we have a lovely indoor school to ride in at Cripwell Farm on this blog — for 2 reasons. One is that everyone doesn’t have that pleasure and I don’t want to rub it in, and the 2nd is that once my new yard is finished I will be so lucky!
In fact, I hardly have to mention riding in this blog as I seem not to have done too much of that this week. Last weekend was spent on a trip up to Lancashire to visit my partner Tom’s family. It was really nice to spend a couple days without the horses, and they deserved a bit of a quiet time after all our trips out the past couple of weeks anyway.
The best thing about going to visit family who don’t live close is definitely being able to show off the pictures of our yard in progress. Fresh ears and eyes to see the pictures means that I can natter on about it for ages without anyone changing the subject!
The yard at home is looking fabulous. Our school now has the fencing around it finished and Elmtree Construction have moved on to clearing the ground for the concrete pad onto which Hancox Equestrian will construct our American barn.
I have been spending a lot of time this last week sorting the more “boring” aspects of a new yard, like insurance and planting schemes for planning. It is great to be working on something of your own though, it makes even these normally banal tasks feel really exciting!
I do have to do some riding though, and as the season is fast approaching, I have booked in to cross-country school at Aston-le-Walls’ new outdoor all-weather cross-country course this weekend. We are going to make the trip with a few students, so it should be a great way to spend a Saturday. I just hope the weather wants to play along with us!
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.