I hope everyone had a cracking weekend. I have now finally finished working in London and with only 2 ½ weeks to go until the Badminton Mitsubishi Cup, it could not have happened too soon.
I had planned to ride Sara (Donner Sara B) last Thursday after I got off the train, but once again life was getting in the way. I had forgotten that I had an opticians appointment which I had to attend or they were threatening to cut off my supply of contact lenses (without which I can barely see the end of my nose). I had noticed that one of my eyes was a little dry and apparently I had an eye ulcer, so no contact lenses for the weekend which kind of disrupted my horsey plans.
On Friday I headed to Eland Lodge although Sara was left at home. I am running her at Kelsall Hill around the BE100 this weekend and decided that Eland Lodge, then seven days to Kelsall Hill and then 10 days to Badminton was a bit much so I had chosen just to head to Kelsall. Now that Eland has been and gone, I hope that I do not live to regret that decision.
On Saturday I went for a lesson with the very talented Andrew Heffernan (I did sneak my lenses in briefly for the lesson). Sara and I have not had as many cross-country lessons this year in the run up to Badminton as we had last year, and last week training at Kelsall Hill I was definitely feeling a little rusty. We did have some hairy moments but Andy reminded me to keep her in front of my leg and not to drop my rein on the last stride (pictured top).
Sara post-bath
(Image credit: creditUnknown)
I am finding it difficult to adjust between Sara and my other horse Lily (Perchance) as they are both very different rides. They are both running at Kelsall but once that’s out of the way I think that Lily will have to wait until after Badminton as I really need to spend more time getting synced with Sara.
Continued below…
On Monday I took the opportunity to give Sara a deep clean after a gallop around the forest to get her nice and warm. She was fully primped and preened, scrubbed from head to toe, heels trimmed, mane trimmed and tail pulled. I also did a little preening myself.
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Now I do have a confession to make, half of my long hair is not actually mine! I have decided to have my extensions taken out for Badminton this year. Last year I left them in and although the on site showers are pretty good (though I would recommend taking a pair of flip flops for in the shower as the floor in the changing area does get a little muddy and there is nothing worse than putting clean feet on a cold muddy floor), without access to a hair dryer they were definitely not looking their best by the end of the week!
Love,
Carrie (and Sara)
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