Lauren Shannon’s eventing blog: celebrating the end of the big freeze
The snow is finally gone! After the covering of white stuff it all looks very green out there — well, the bits that aren’t under water or churned up with mud.
The big freeze ended last weekend and to celebrate all the horses had a well-deserved long hack in the sunshine on Sunday. It was remarkably uneventful considering how excited I thought the horses would be.
The only testing moment came when Kilcannon Credit Crunch (Crunchie) — who is very sensitive — spooked at the bells going off as we passed right by the village church. I stayed on her, but my phone fell out my pocket and onto the road. The village was empty, so with no one to pass it up I had to get off. This would be fine on any other horse, but Crunchie is a different story for two reasons. One, she is massive. Two, she is very sharp to get on! I was so nervous to vault back up onto her, but bless the mare, she was as quiet as anything.
So with all the horses finally being ridden outdoors again, we can crack on and get out jumping and going to dressage shows. I was hoping to go jumping locally early this week, but paperwork is keeping me shut in. So we are planning on jumping with all the horses later in the week and taking the youngsters to unaffiliated dressage at the weekend.
The other spanner in the works at the minute is my lorry situation. I am still looking to buy a five-horse box before the season starts in March, but so far everything we have looked at isn’t going to suit, so I am starting to get a little nervous and am checking online horsebox adverts hourly for new ones.
Arthur’s (Silver Birches Arthur) owner Andrew Carvill runs http://horseboxrepairuk.com/ so I at least have some expert eyes to help me find the right box. Fingers crossed we find one soon as the season is fast approaching, and if the weather gets a bit drier we might actually get some eventing in!
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.