Over the past few weeks we have been gearing up for what we hope will be the start of the 2021 season. It has certainly been quite unusual not really knowing when things will open or get going again but we are very grateful to British Eventing for keeping us in the know as much as possible and with the end in sight we have been able to start firming up a few plans.
As I fall into the “Elite” category the past few weeks we have begun to get the horses out and about and hire some XC and showjumping venues. It definitely felt peculiar being away from home but all of the horses seemed to really enjoy being out!
Last week we took Cooley Hildare Osiris (Osiris) SM Quentin (Ronnie), Hildare Falcon (Falcon), Toffy-Fee (Toffy), Dysart Elite (Lennie) and Class Apart (Max) to Wayfarer Eventing for their first XC school on the grass. Wayfarer have developed their course a lot over the lockdown period and the new water fence is a fantastic addition to the already excellent training venue. It was my first time riding Ronnie and Falcon XC and they along with all the others went really well and had a fantastic time blowing the cobwebs away.
The following day we took Class Spec (Specs), Class Vista (Victor) Monbeg Alcatraz (Dave) and Billy Orinoco (Orio) to Rosamund Green Farm to jump some of their more technical lines and again they all gave me a great feel. Thanks so much to the Dumas family for having us at your wonderful facilty.
The next couple of weeks will be filled with trips to SJ training arena hire, dressage lessons and some more XC schooling before we finally head to our first event at Oasby for the “Elite” OI.