Horse of the Year Show groom’s blog: I’m absolutely exhausted
Freelance groom Ruth Baxter is working for the Carol Bardo and Jayne Webber’s Moor Farm showing team throughout Horse of the Year Show
Well that’s Horse of the Year Show over for another year.
I’m absolutely exhausted! I’ve been fighting off a cold all week and the long day yesterday gave it the chance it needed to take hold.
With everything we could do at home for the show done, we were able to start a little later today. It was a real novelty for it to be just about light when I woke up.
Many of the livery horses who competed at HOYS will go home to their owners from the show. Most of those who come back to Moor Farm begin the process of being roughed off for the winter. This means the yard quickly becomes much easier as there are less rugs to be put on and the grooming is less thorough.
There is still plenty of cleaning and tidying to be done. The little lorry is finished for the week so it was completely cleared out and the living cleaned. The pile of sweet wrappers we had collected was slightly worrying!
Not only did I find more blisters last night, I created some new ones today whilst sweeping the big yard. We gave the yard a real blitz so it’s clean and tidy and we don’t have to worry about it tomorrow, when we will have a MOUNTAIN of tack to clean.
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This evening was tense, waiting for the results of the supreme championship. I’m thrilled for Pearly King and all his connections, but I will admit I did hope it might have been The Humdinger’s year. He has won his class for the past five years and the coloured championship for the past four. He is one of the loveliest horses on the yard and makes everyone feel like the best rider in the world.
Ruth
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