Not sure Buddy meant to do that.

My god it’s been a hot one today. The indoor arena here can a bit of a sweat box at the best of times, but today it was unbearably close. Still we’ve done our first 2 lessons (a flat and a grids) and Buddy has settled in well.

He travelled badly so arrived needing a bath. I will crack it. I know I got it about wrong this morning when I loaded him so will use the downtime to practise what Bridget showed me.

So far Buddy is up to 3 baths and I’ve stuck my head under the hose. Off to make my first dinner in the lorry. Then a proper shower is needed.

I’m off tomorrow for 3 days of lessons. This means 2 nights in my lorry. So this is the latest upgrade – an electric cool box hooked up to a leisure battery. My dad gave me the battery and a solar panel so I can charge it too. It’s not fancy, but it’ll work and means cold drinks and I can take some food with me.

I’m rather excited about staying in my lorry. Hope Buddy is as excited about B&B and learning.

Badders came a bit late. Well it’s not every day that you get to have a lesson with a Badminton winner and European Team Gold medalist. Today was that day as we headed over to Brampton for a lesson with Chris Bartle.

I was very nervous and not sure how it was going to be. It didn’t start well, as Buddy took exception to a chair on the bank. Chris told me to bridge my reins. It’s amazing how much that helped to keep Buddy focused and straight. Felt very odd to start off with. He also told me to imagine I had £50 under each armpit. That definitely helped me keep my arms still.

By the end of the lesson we were flying! Biggest we’ve jumped together. The fences were quite meaty and most of the fences were up at 1m. Buddy gave me such a great feeling, few sticky moments of course, but so much to like. I have to keep reminding myself that we haven’t done that much this year. Definitely getting my mojo back…..

And he was very complimentary about my position. I’ve been working really hard on that!

I had a lovely evening with 3 very special ladies tonight. They’ve been such a great support to me this year, I wanted to say thank you to them. So laid on a buffet in the garden (I like them so wouldn’t want to inflict my cooking on them). Very civilised indeed.

Today Buddy has a visit from Bridget Colston Complete Horsemanship IHRT EET to see if she could help with his lorry issues.

Just my luck it was like Piccadilly Circus at the yard. The straw was being delivered so that meant a huge flatbed trailer and two tractors for Buddy to look at.

It kinda helped though. There was so much going on it almost made him focus on the job at hand. Bridget decided clicker training is the way to go with him. He does love a treat so quickly picked it up. She suggested putting his ears on too to help reduce the noise.

One dodgy moment when the straw trailer reversing round the corner in front of the lorry and worried him. Poor boy nearly leapt onto it in his haste to get out and away. Thankfully he stayed with me.

She really helped explain a lot of his behaviour. Bridget said that Buddy was a A* student today. Really enjoyable and interesting session. And we’ve got lots of homework to do. I do love homework.

Lovely lunch with my foodie friend today at The Wildebeest. Great to catch up after such a long time. It always fun to go out for lunch with a foodie. There was one point where I even surprised myself with my critique. Let’s face it, I’m culinary challenged at best.

I didn’t take any pictures of my food. But Sam shared this food-related joke. Rather cheesy, but really funny.

It summed up our lunch – good food, good company and good laughs.

Headed down to Thorpe Marshes for a walk with a friend. I’ve never walked round there before. It was very pretty. Lots of wild flowers. Saw these bulrushes on the way there. My photographic skills are definitely getting better. 😊