Lauren Shannon’s blog: thank goodness for the indoor school
Hello everyone, I hope you are managing to stay wrapped up warm in this freezing weather!
Since last week, not a huge amount has happened, as the snow decided to fall. I suppose we should all be thankful that we’ve got through this much of the winter before the weather stopped play.
I am lucky here at Cripwell Farm because we have a good sized indoor school, so the horses can stay in work no matter how bad the weather gets. The horses do tend to get very fresh though, as I normally turn them out every day and that becomes impossible in the snow and ice. Therefore there are always some interesting rodeo moves, but luckily I haven’t had to bake a cake just yet (at our yard, if you fall off, you have to bake everyone a cake).
The biggest downside to the weather has been that we didn’t manage to any of the horses out showjumping at the weekend, and Louie (Zero Flight) has not had his first canter of the year because the local gallops are still rock hard. This isn’t the end of the world, as my horses have all been in work since last November, so a quiet week isn’t going to set us back.
The teaching side of the business is busier than ever though — I like to think it’s my expertise, but it’s probably just as much to get in our indoor school! — with all my time spent teaching if I’m not actually on a horse. Everyone seems to be working at top speed to get ready for the season, as most of us are starting in just a month’s time.
So hopefully this week the weather will start to warm up a bit so the horses can get back outside and we can get the truck out to take them to a few shows at the weekend. I don’t mind one quiet week, but any more than that and I’ll risk going stir crazy! Stay warm…
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.