Lauren Shannon’s eventing blog: snow, snow and more snow
Well, last week I was watching snow fall outside, and it seems some things haven’t changed! I hope everyone’s managed to keep warm and safe in the snow and ice.
Luckily, there seems to be a bright spot on the horizon, or at least a raindrop on the weather forecast, rather than a snowflake for this weekend. Who would have thought we’d be happy to see rain?!
I know everyone is struggling with exercising horses with the frozen ground, with all the local show centres around us shut last weekend. Honestly though, I can’t complain as we have the indoor school. The horses are all very fresh with the cold weather, and will be happy to be working outside those same four walls every day, but at least they are still being schooled and fittened for the fast approaching season.
The horses did end up getting a couple days out in the field as they were getting a bit too fresh and bored, but only Louie and Delphi (my retired mare who’s in foal to Cevin Z) enjoyed the snow enough to want to stay out all day!
I think the only thing I can bemoan is that the automatic water drinkers have frozen so we have to fill old fashioned water buckets at the minute (and I’m not stupid enough to moan about that when I know that’s what most everyone does every day!).
It has also worked well for me being “stuck” on the yard this past week as it frees up some time to interview potential new working students for the upcoming season. My yard is very small compared to most event yards, and I work closely with anyone who comes to us, so it’s very important we get a fun, hardworking and dedicated team ready for the year ahead.
So aside from that and keeping the horses ticking over it’s been a very quiet week, not at all what you’d expect for January!
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It has also given us a chance to go over our plans for the new yard at home. We have walked the field where we are planning to build over and over to try to make the best use of space while saving on materials and making it very user-friendly. Believe me that is harder than it sounds!
Luckily, after lots of runs through the snow we have planned everything to a T, and now we just have to wait for the go-ahead from the planners to get moving (which should hopefully be within three months!).
So until then it’s all systems go down at the yard, and after a week in the indoor I’m sure the horses are as keen to get out competing as I am!
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.