Melted kittens

I think I’m adapting to the heat slightly better than the kittens. After taking Buddy out for an early morning ride, I got home to find Hugo wailing round the house.

He spend most of the day in the office with me in front of the fan. Dodo has been hiding in the borders. There’s definitely been a cooling breeze out here.

My laptop seemed to be hotter than I was today. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been hot, but not unbearable. Or maybe I’ve just found a way to keep my office cooler.

Hugo has discovered the joys of the shade lounger. As soon as it was in shade, he staked his claim and isn’t moving.

Bring on cooler weather and hopefully a big thunderstorm to clear the air.

Scorchio

Without stating the bleeding obvious, it’s been REALLY hot today. I’ve been melting over my laptop. I could feel the heat pouring in from the conservatory. Which was where the kittens slept today. Nutters!

Curtains closed, fan on and lots of fluids. It definitely helped. Finished the day sat in the shade listening to an interview with one of the founders of Brewdog. Really interesting guy.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Wall to wall blue skies today in Costa Del Brundall.

Camp clean up

Today was my camp clean up day. Or the start of it. It usually takes me less time that I’m actually away, so that’s something. 4 loads of washing later and I’m almost there. Probably another 2 or 3 to go though.

Thankfully it’s all drying really quickly in the hot weather we’re having. Got my tack and the lorry to clean once the washing is done. It’s amazing how dirty everything gets.

While I was hanging one load of washing out, I spotted this fuchsia in the border. It’s stunning. So vibrant! Made me smile. My garden is fairing OK in the heat. But we all need to start a rain dance soon…

Big smoke

This was my office today. Another early start as I was on the 6:30am train to London. I was part of the events’ team running an AGM. The venue was in Smithfield Market. The windows were stunning. One of the sun’s was missing. Apparently it was blown out in WWII.

The day was very successful and ran very smoothly. I also got to go on the new Elizabeth line. Super cool. Literally, as it’s all air conditioned. Good job too as it was rather hot today.

I love being back in London. Having worked there for many years, it’s so familiar and comfortable.

Now on the way home.

Camp close

Well that’s another BHS Camp done! And another brilliant one. Buddy was an absolute superstar! He tried his hardest and did everything asked.

He was also a complete piggy and hoovered up food like it was going out of fashion. As a result, he had by far the most disgusting stable. Shame there wasn’t a prize for that as he’d definitely win!!

Still we did come home with more rosettes to add to our collection. A 7th place for show jumping. And 8th place in dressage.

The latter was quite a shock as I was the first one in and I went wrong. I’d never been the first rider in, ever, and didn’t realise how much I watch the rider in front. Totally brain fart. Still there was a lot to like apparently, so that’s good.

The frustrating thing is that I’d ran the test in my lesson this morning. That was just over an hour before. Doh!

Oh well, placings were the cherry on the cake after a brilliant camp! We will both sleep well tonight!!

Micromanagement

Third day of camp and another two lessons done. Started the day with grids. Now we all know, I bloody love grids! And so does Buddy. He was rather keen to get on with it. So the focus of the lesson was about getting his canter established and listening before we attempted the grid. He flew through it though!!

Then this afternoon, it was another flat work lesson. The focus of this was to try and micromanage Buddy less and help him be softer. Much harder than I seems as I‘m not always a ‘less is more’ kinda rider. Definitely making progress though. So that’s good.

The Spillers weight bridge was back for Buddy’s annual weight in. He scored a perfect body condition and has dropped weight from last year. He’s now 637kg.

Another successful camp day done. We’ll both sleep well tonight.

Bays and greys

Second day of camp done. Two lessons today. First lesson course jumping. Where I learnt that if I ride my horse and prepare him rather than throwing him into fences things go much nicer. Not that it was bad, but much smoother after I actually road Buddy.

Though he did come out a bit All Guns Blazing. He was very keen to get going.

After lunch, we had a flat lesson. Where I had huge lightbulb moment. The instructor told me to ‘cuddle my ribs’ with my upper arms. My goodness, it was completely different! Buddy was so soft in the contact.

So far we’re both loving camp!

Camp life again

After an early start to beat the rush, we arrived at Forest Edge for camp. Got Buddy all settled and then went for a hack in the forest.

A lovely slow start to camp. First lessons tomorrow.

Buddy is loving camp life again. He’s inhaling haylage and making friends. I’ve inhaled BBQ and catching up with friends.