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What a month!

I knew at the beginning of the month that April was going to be rather busy. Apart from the day to day basic stuff we already had; Addington Unaffiliated Dressage Championships, PetPlan Area Festival Final, having the EuroDressage team to stay for a week of photo shoots and then to top it all off a trip to Germany to train with Monica Theodorescu!

 
Let's start with the good things about the month (always good to start with the positives!):

• Bosco qualified for Regionals at Novice and Elementary level and subsequently also PetPlan areas at the respective levels

• Quadrille qualified for regionals at Elementary, has his Petplan qualification for Medium (made his debut at Medium to boot!) and is only a few points shy of regional qualification and Medium.

• We have a new horse, Sir Clad, who won first time out at prelim (69%) and novice (68%) so is well on his way to regional qualification at novice level

• New arrivals also included; Molly and Dilly who are all settling in well and producing some very promising work already

• Zidane was 4th at the Adding ton Championships at novice level (all top four horses were on 68% something so it was a very close affair!) 

• Quadrille competed at the Petplan Equine Area Finals at Hartpury, he was going so so well, but unfortunately we had to retire as he was very badly spooked at the end of his test by a spectator and could not regain his compose 

• I had a phenomenal week at Monica"s training with Quadrille, very bright future ahead (hooves crossed!)

• had yet another fabulous lesson with Fiona Bigwood, so pleased with Quad and how he is taking all of this in his stride and producing some class work!

Now onto the not so good......

• As I mentioned before, I had to retire Quad at the end of his test at the Petplan Equine Area Festival Finals as he was so badly spooked

• Bosco was sold

• Chelsea Grey left for her new home

• Being held hostage.. Upon our return from Monica"s my lorry broke down on the German AutoBahn. We ended up having to stay an extra night in the middle of nowhere and the horses had to stay at a Gypsey camp! The following day, once the lorry was fixed, we were held to ransom by the gypsies and not allowed to leave, after parting with £120 we were released and managed a very quick exit - luckily the remaining part of our journey was effortless

• My beloved HorseQuest jacket died a valiant death (I have been given a new one, still breaking it in!) 

So.... What does May have in store? Hopefully a bit of a quieter time. Time to work with some of the young horses and get them up and running. Finish Quadrilles medium qualification for summer regionals and (hopefully) get Charlie qualified for summer regionals at Novice Open. ....no being held by German gypsies, and no more breaking of riding boots (I’ve been through 3 pairs this month!) 

Thanks for reading!