Alex Hua Tian’s blog: even eventers have to deal with A level results

At last A level results, a day I’ve been very apprehensive about. However, at the crack of dawn on Thursday I checked my emails and sure enough I had a message from school, two As and two Bs. So I made my conditions for Bristol to study aeronautical engineering! Strange to think I’ve just got used to the idea that I have finished school and now I’ll be at university in six weeks.

Back to the horses. Chico’s had his results back as well. As soon as we got back from Hartpury, I got Clive, our vet, to take some blood samples to see whether he had a virus or bug. When they came back everything was within their normal ranges, so it appeared that either there was something else wrong with him, or more likely, he was just recovering from it.

In fact, it’s been an ideal week for Chico, nice and quiet with no competitions at the weekend for him to aim at. He’s galloped well once and jumped brilliantly yesterday, so it seems like he’s back on form. It’s been nice for me as well to get back into the home routine and put some work into Maggie (Magenta) and Jeans before Blenheim next month.

Next week should be far more interesting with a photo shoot at Barbury Castle Estate for Sports Illustrated (China) with Bob Martin, a top sport’s photographer — he has some pretty amazing photos on his website — and Highclere advanced with all three hopefully, if Maggie comes off the waitlist.

Alex

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