Claimed

I brought the Buddymobile home last night so that I could clean it today. Hugo has claimed the bedding. He’s so happy there. Maybe he wants to be a lorry cat…

Burning calories

Back home after another fab BHS Clinic at Forest Edge. One night in the lorry, two lessons with Jo Winfield and lots of lightbulb moments.

It was blissfully quiet and relaxed. I’m so glad we decided to stay last night. Buddy had a very good night judging by the amount of shavings on his rug. I had a cozy night too. I love sleeping in my little lorry.

We both worked hard in our lessons today. Buddy had to work even harder in our jumping lesson with some bending lines. We were also working on the quality of his canter between jumps. He was ravenous afterwards. He burnt a lot of calories it seems.

Bromance

Buddy and I headed over to Blickling Hall this morning to meet up with Katie and Archie for a lovely long hack. Buddy and Archie started thier bromance at Big Camp. When he reassured Archie that camp was an awesome place to be. They’ve been firm friends ever since. As have Katie and I.

It’s amazing how many wonderful people I’ve met through horses and camps.

They were so cute together I had to snap a photo. Here’s to many more horsey adventures.

Jump around

Took Buddy over to World Horse Welfare today for a jumping lesson with Judith Barker. She’d set up a grid and a mix of show jumps and XC-style ones too.

Buddy was on very good form. And Judith said she could see improvements from our last lesson. So that’s good.

After a well-earned sausage roll and coffee (me not him), I went for a wander round to see some of the residents. These two cuties got lots of scratches. They’re so tiny compared to Buddy.

Winter is definitely on the way. I had to break out the ‘big dressing gown’ and over trousers earlier. And lit the fire tonight. The kittens and I are toasty on the sofa. It’s funny cause in the Summer I hardly see them.

Grasshopper

Got home today to find a grasshopper on my conservatory roof. As you do. It made me laugh and think of watching Kung Fu when I was a child. ‘Choose wisely Graasshopper’ was one of the sayings from the series. This grasshopper choose very wisely as he avoided the rain (and kittens).

Also made me think of one of my favourite animation films – Kung Fu Panda. There’s a theme there me thinks. The films make me laugh.

This little fella was released back into the garden where he hopped off into the grass.

Neighbours

When I drive into the close, I admire these plants in one of my neighbours’ driveway. I’ve watched them grow over the years that I’ve lived here. They’ve gone from tiny plants to these beauties. I love the flowers each year too.

Not a clue what they are. But that doesn’t matter. These particular neighbours are on the move soon so I hope the new owners keep them. In fact, it looks like I’m going to be getting lots of new neighbours as I’ve heard on the grapevine that there are 4 bungalows going up for sale soon. Fingers crossed for lots more lovely neighbours.

Compassion

I’m back peopling at the chiro’s for another week. You could tell it was the 13th today as we got off to a bit of a shaky start with lots of things sent to try us.

Thankfully we had cause to smile when we were brought this yummy cherry and almond cake by a client. It was still warm from the oven (the best kind of cake in my eyes).

It also came in very handy when one of the patients collapsed with epilepsy. Good job I‘m calm in a crisis and have first aid training. I’ve also experienced people with seizures before so knew what to do.

She was very grateful for my support and compassion as I stayed with her while she recovered.

Compassion was a topic of conversation today as another patient saying she felt compassion had been replaced with self-righteousness. That really got me thinking…

My Nana used to tell me to treat people how you want to be treated. I’ve held onto that. And always try to do that. I really felt for the lady today. She needed compassion. And cake!

Extras

This evening I did something a bit different. I was an extra in a real-life crime recreation programme. It was set in the early 90s and all I had to do was stand around chatting. As you can imagine, that was quite a stretch!!

In typical Pip-fashion, I ended up chatting with the leading lady and coached her as she was little nervous.

So who knows, I might be on TV.

Camp fun

I’m home after the second day of camp. And what a fun day it’s been. Woke up to thick fog. A total whiteout. So wasn’t sure how our XC lesson would go. I needn’t have worried as the sun burnt through and I was soon wishing for the cool.

I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive about taking Buddy out on the course. It’s been a few months since we had a run. And the last ODE we did there, we had to withdraw. But I needn’t have worried. We were storming round the fences before I knew it.

There were lots of positives to take. Just one blip where Buddy obviously thought there were lions behind the fence as he really wasn’t happy. One thing I know about my boy is that he doesn’t over-react without good reason. Got him settled eventually. And we carried on.

Came back with a huge smile on my face! When I got back I heard that there had reports of a puma sighting nearby, so who knows?!

After lunch, we did a grids lesson. We were both tired, but still got a lot from it. It was a very different grid – working on straightness and adaptability. I’ll be setting that up at home.

We’ll both sleep well tonight, that’s for sure. I do love going to training camps. I’ve met so many fab people that way. We have such a laugh too. Here’s to more next year!