Badminton Horse Trials blog: Sarah Stretton’s hobbling on

As you can imagine, this week has been very slow and boring as I’m still laid up after my accident a few weeks ago at Swalcliffe. The only good thing is I’m missing out on all this lovely wet weather.

If I don’t manage to get up the yard to say hi to everyone, Naomi (my aunt, whose yard I’m based at) rings me up to give me a progress report on what they have all done and any exciting things that have happened on the yard.

Fortunately, Naomi’s bad back has recovered after a good session at the osteopath, but care still has to be taken in the amount she does in one day so my mate Ben has very kindly been popping up to gallop the horses, which has been great. He’s a point-to-point jockey so I certainly know they’re in good hands.

My younger horses — Gero (Lazy Acres Hurricane), Lilly (Lazy Acres Tiger Lilly) and Derek (Arturo) — had a trip to Crown Farm where Owen Moore bases himself for him to have a school over some cross-country fences, so while they were away, myself, Mum and Craig (Barr, my boyfriend) sorted out the yard.

While Craig was working the guys that were left behind, Mum and I went down the line of stables. I can now hobble around very slowly without crutches so I did the mucking out while Mum emptied barrows and did the hay and waters. This seemed a good idea at the time, however, after completion I didn’t feel quite the same. So that afternoon was spent collapsed on the sofa with little movement.

Badminton final scores

Goring’s off

My cousin Amber Franklin was meant to be taking her two ponies to Goring Heath this week but that, along with almost every other event, was unfortunately cancelled due to the endless rainfall. So instead they went showjumping to Moreton Morrell.

As usual, there was a lorry load from the yard — Amber with her two ponies, Olivia with Mouse, Charlotte with Summer and Louise took Charlotte’s other pony Bobby. That was only the riders! Obviously there was also Naomi and myself, then Olivia’s mum Sally, Dawn and Sam in our lorry. They were there all day doing various classes, but I could only stick half a day so I had to retire back to the sofa and will be popping over today (Tuesday) to watch Owen give the horses a quick whirl.

As for the big boys, Johnny (Highbury) is out for a number of weeks with an injury that he sustained at Gatcombe so he’ll hopefully be better when I’m fully fit again. Bobby (Lazy Acres Skip On) and Spider (Lazy Acres Crusader) are just working at home, with the aim of going to Belton next weekend. Amber is off to Weston Park pony trials on Saturday, so we have plenty to look forward to this week as long as the weather doesn’t ruin things.

As for myself, I have my stitches out today (Tuesday) so fingers crossed it’s healed enough to start physio.

Sarah

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