I couldn’t find Hugo this morning. I knew he’d come in last night. I knew I’d locked the cat flap. But he wasn’t to be found. I was rather perplexed if I’m honest.

Until I picked up my bag to unpack from camp… it was rather heavy and wriggled. A lot. It seemed that he’d decided that was the best place to sleep last night.

He wasn’t best pleased at being evicted. It made me laugh as I had come up with some rather implausible ways he could have gotten out.

Today would have been my Mum’s birthday. She would have been 82. It also marks a year since I last saw her as I made the trip to celebrate with her. Not that she knew much about it.

It feels very odd today. So I raised a glass to her. This was her in 2018 before the ravages of time, Covid and a million and one other ailments got her. I love this photo.

So Happy Birthday Mum. I hope you’re enjoying your birthday in the sky.

We’re back home after a fantastic camp. I have to say I think this was our best one to date! And that’s saying something with the number we’ve done.

Buddy was an absolute star from start to finish. We arrived in torrential rain, we finished in torrential rain, but it didn’t dampen our spirits at all.

After two jumping lessons with Caroline, today we had a jumping lesson with Jo. She broke out the spider! Oh my days, so much fun. It can be jumped in 16 different ways. We did a few. And then stringing it together with a few other jumps. Buddy didn’t bat an eye at it. He flew round everything. In fact, he’s jumped absolutely everything this week.

Our final lesson was flat. I’d asked Jo if she could help me get the feel of Medium Trot. So she set up a pole exercise. I could feel the difference for sure!

We had three cracking flat lessons with Jo. Buddy felt like he embraced his inner dressage horse. I can feel a winter of dressage coming on. For a long time, I didn’t feel we were good enough. Now I really feel we are.

Camps are my happy place. They fill my heart and my soul. They also test my brain. Let’s just say we will all sleep well tonight. Buddy is tucked up in his stable. Bert is snoring already. I won’t be far behind…

Second day of camp done and dusted. Time seems to go very slowly here and fly by all at the same time.

Talking of flying, I nearly got a flying lesson when Buddy and I had a bit of a disagreement over which way we were going. I said right, he went left and I saw the window at the side of the arena coming rather quickly towards me. Thankfully we got back on the same page without too much drama.

It reminds me just how far we’ve come together. I’ve been bringing him to camps since 2017. He has changed so much. So have I. I have definitely improved as a rider. He’s grown stronger. We’ve both learned to manage our energies better. It helps when you have first class tutelage. The two instructors here have been teaching us all the time we’ve been together. So they know us really well.

Good job too as our jumping lesson ended up being the source of much merriment, laughing and comedic moments. Not just from Buddy and me. We were all laughing so hard at the goings on. Thankfully it didn’t decent into too much chaos. Laughter is good for the soul, right?! Camps are too.

Today saw the return of tape at camp. This time in a different position. When we were in Scone, Bert accidentally wrenched my shoulder when I tripped over him. Kelly treated it on Thursday when she came out to me. Apparently I’ve done something to my deltoid. Whatever that is?! Anatomy isn’t my strong point.

As she was a camp doing treatments, I asked her if she could give it a bit of extra support before my jumping lesson this afternoon. It had been a bit twingy in my flat lesson, so better to be safe.

My body had definitely responded to her treatments (and elbows). It was the first time she’d seen me ride since my rider assessment. She definitely felt there was improvement.

Speaking of improvements, there were lots in both of our lessons today. Buddy is getting better and better. I just love my little boy.

The Baby Sprocker has had a wonderful day too charging round the forest and car park. My boys really do make me smile. In fact, being at camp does too.

It was might have been a rough night weather-wise, but Toby kept me snug and dry. Even if he was rocking a bit in the wind. I’m snuggled up in the Luton. Yes I know it’s 9pm. Camp is tiring you know…

So it seems that kindness is becoming a bit of a theme for me. Today I took one of the liveries’ pony’s over to do a spot of dressage. She’d been let down with her transport, so I stepped in.

She was very appreciative. As was her sharer who was actually competing. And said sharer’s parents. It was a bit of a family affair.

She did two lovely tests. I got a bacon roll and a coffee. And I also got a bit of help with an upgrade I’d planned to Toby. The sharer’s Dad put this tool rack up for me in minutes.

I love a practical upgrade. Very happy now I can keep my tools tidy.

Then this afternoon, Buddy, Bert and I headed to camp. We brought a very special guest – Sam. He’s 32 and still going strong. His owner, Jan is 72! Talk about inspirational. She wasn’t sure if she could get him to another camp. I feel very honoured I could do that for her. She repaid me with dinner in her motorhome.

It’s true what they say that kindness breeds kindness.

Today’s hack took a rather interesting turn when we got caught out in a thunderstorm. I don’t mean one of those little rumble ones. I mean a biblical one with thunder, lightening, sideways rain and hail!

Oh yes, there wasn’t much of us that was left dry I can tell you. At one point, there were thunder claps and lightening going off on 3 different sides! Mental! It bubbled up so quickly and hit very hard.

Buddy and Frankie were absolute rockstars. Apart from the very first thunder clap right overhead, they didn’t react at all.

There was a lot of ‘good boys’ every time there was another crash. It was a lot. But we made it safely home. Just as another wave came through. Thankfully I got Buddy safely in his stable to wait it out. Then a rainbow appeared.

My plan had been to put my tack on the lorry ready to go to camp tomorrow. I quickly had to change that to ‘bring it all home to dry and clean’.

It used to be a bit of a running joke that it was t camp without a thunderstorm. One the day before still counts I guess…

Bert got to pay it forward today. He met 13 week old Barney for a puppy play date. Oh my day, he’s a total cutie. Reminds me how tiny Bert was when he had his first outings.

Barney belongs to my friend, so while we caught up over coffee, the boys played. That meant that there was a bit of coffee spilt. Bert decided to get himself tangled round the picnic table.

Barney and Bert had a lovely time together. Barney has his first bit of pupcake. He was a fan! Bert is definitely a fan of them. He wolfed his down.

It’s going to be fun watching them grow up together…

This sums up my day. Now you might be wondering why? Well it seems that I spent a large proportion of the day walking around with my t-shirt on inside out!

You’d think by now I would be able to dress myself. Clearly not. It was only when I was telling my farrier that my day wasn’t quite going to plan, did he point out my mistake. See, sums it up.

Thankfully I didn’t have any video calls in my diary. That could have been interesting. Nothing bad happened today. Things just didn’t run as smoothly as I’d have liked. I have days like that. Most days are pretty good. And I can dress myself properly…

I made several mistakes today. The first one was turning on one of my clients’ laptop. I was greeted with ‘the blue screen of death’. Thankfully they have IT support on standby, so I only lost an hour or so getting back in.

Technology is amazing. When it works. When it doesn’t, it’s rather frustrating. Still I got there in the end.

That put me a bit behind, so felt like I was chasing my tail. I forgot to put fly spray on Buddy before our ride so he wasn’t happy. Then I thought I would pop to the shop on the way home. I needed a few bits. And had kinda skipped lunch. When will I learn to never go food shopping when I’m hungry?!

I ended up buying more than I’d planned and more than I needed. Thank goodness for the chest freezer. I also bought something for my dinner that seemed to take an age to actually cook. Imagine a rather hangry Pip having a stern word with said food.

Still it was very tasty when it was cooked. I now have a full fridge, a full freezer and a full tummy. I also got some snacks and drinks ready for camp next week. Let’s see if I can remember to actually take them this camp…