HOYS groom's blog: a mixed day for Moor Farm

Mixed results for the Moor Farm team today. We were absolutely thrilled with It’s After Eight coming second in the small hunter class. Silverstream wanted to see if his flying changes would be as good as Olympic champion Valegro’s. Sadly the judge was simply asking for a change of rein… maybe a dressage career beckons?! That’s horses though and you learn to take the rough with the smooth.

We had an early start this morning to ensure all horses were in the right place at the right time. We have a lorry and various drivers, who do shuttle runs to and from HOYS throughout the week, and today required two runs.

The wet weather today put a bit of a dampener on things — quite literally! Keeping the horses’ coats looking good at this time of year is an absolute nightmare, carefully managed with a combination of thorough grooming, lights and making sure the horses are never too hot or too cold. Getting wet can cause the coats to go very fluffy, so rain is definitely not part of the plan! Stopping isn’t really an option either, so out came the waterproofs.

People often don’t consider the more mundane jobs which must be done throughout the week. The washing machine, for example, is on almost constantly throughout weeks like this to make sure we have enough clean bandages, travel kit, rugs and saddle cloths for all the horses as they go back and forth. Today I managed five loads, so the washing pile now looks more like a hill and less like a mountain. And I have to be careful to check the pile for yard cats before bundling it into the machine!

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