Lauren Shannon’s blog: it’s all about the weather as Badminton approaches
Hi everyone,
Well, this week the blog is going to be about our glorious British weather, of course.
Last week I headed off to Hambleden for Crunchie’s (Kilcannon Credit Crunch) first ever CIC*. She has been improving so quickly, which has been really nice for her owners, Watling JCB. I was so excited to get her into a big arena for the first time, as I knew she would excel. Crunchie didn’t disappoint, doing a 49.
This was all on Friday afternoon and the ground we were competing on held up brilliantly, so all credit to Hambleden’s ground team. Unfortunately, the lorry park became a serious bog and the tractors pulled lorries into, as well as out of the park.
The boys pulling us in and out were lovely and instead of pocketing cash that was offered, they asked us to donate it to Claire Lomas’ walk campaign for the London Marathon (which if you haven’t donated to yet please do, she is making seriously good progress – http://www.justgiving.com/claire-Lomas).
Badminton final scores
The event had to be abandoned so Crunchie didn’t get to do her jumping phases. I feel so sorry for the organisers, as they had obviously done everything they could to keep the ground good.
It did mean that I could spend a weekend at home and catch up on a lot of things. It is annoying to miss a run on the mares, but there will always be another event.
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I headed to the Unicorn Centre on Monday for dressage lessons through World Class with Ferdi Eilberg. I took Gentel Lux, Crunchie and Mikey (McFly), and they all went beautifully. I am so happy with their progress, so I can’t wait to get them out again this weekend. That is, if the weather allows!
The Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials is also approaching very quickly. Louie (Zero Flight) is off to do his final canter this weekend and he is raring to go. I can’t wait to get there next Wednesday and get settled in, it felt like such a huge occasion heading into those historic stables last year – I cannot wait for that feeling again!
The one thing we can be certain of is it’s not going to be hard ground this year – I’ve already packed Louie’s snorkel and flippers…
Lauren
Lauren will be blogging daily from Tuesday onwards next week as she tackles Badminton Horse Trials.
We will be running our popular H&H Live interactive written commentary across all four days of Badminton, in association with Baileys Horse Feeds. Read more and sign up for a reminder at www.horseandhound.co.uk/badminton2012live.
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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.