Hickstead the return

I’m home after a very long, very emotional and very wonderful weekend at Hickstead. My god, I bloody love RI.

I am so proud of each and every one of the 11 other Carleton riders today. If I thought being team manager last year was an emotional rollercoaster, adding riding in too and it was one hell of a ride!

With hindsight, my focus had been on getting us and everyone there, rather than my preparation with Buddy. He was in one of his more feral moods. Still we started well and ended well, shame it unravelled a bit in the middle.

He got his legs in a muddle at Fence 3 and had it down. After a rather awkward jump at Fence 4, the arena came rushing towards me at an alarming rate. Thankfully I managed to stay in the plate. Just. But it killed our canter and we had a stop at Fence 5. He cleared it at the second attempt and we headed to Fence 6 – the iconic planks….

Yup, you guessed it. He had it down. He was in good company as so did many other competitors. And Fence 5 saw a number of stops. So I didn’t feel quite so bad about our round.

I realised that it was only his second competition of the year. Talk about throwing him in at the deep end. I know I can ride better. I didn’t eat or have coffee before my round. I didn’t get the best night’s sleep. Driving the new lorry took more out of me than I thought. These are things that I can work on.

Overall we did it. I can now say that I have jumped twice at Hickstead. Maybe third time will be the charm?! For now I have more memories and another two photos to add to the collection.

Gardener

I came across some photos from when I moved into my little house last night. It seems like a long time ago now. Well it was over a decade ago. The garden looked so neat, tidy and manicure – a far cry from the lived in version now. I know I’ve let things grow a bit too much. It’s gotten quite out of hand. I love gardening. But in recent years, I haven’t had as much time or inclination to get out there and keep on top of it. I’ve prioritised other things I guess too.

The photos were a stark reminder of how bad it has gotten. The former owner is probably turning in his grave at the state of it. So this afternoon I made a start by mowing the back lawn. I’m going to try and spend a bit more time out there. I really need to weed my driveway. It’s more grass than gravel.

Having new neighbours is a bit of an incentive too. My garden won’t ever look like a Chelsea Show Garden. I’m not that good a gardener. I do prefer the more natural look. I do think it needs some more hard landscaping though so thinking about that.

I spent a fortune on my last garden. I absolutely loved it. I was gutted to see that the people who moved in had ripped it all out.

Still today it was Lawn 0 – Pip 1. Which was a better result than the football. So glad I rushed to get everything done before kick off…

Achievements

I finally got round to framing some more photos. These represent three of my biggest achievements with Buddy. I’m very proud of them. And what we’ve achieved together.

Funnily it was FB telling me that it was a year since I posted the pictures from our first BRC Champs that spurred me into action.

I bought the frames a while back too. Today was the day to get them sorted. Just need to get them on the wall now. Let’s hope that doesn’t take me another year…

Essex

Today has been a bit of a surreal day. I drove to Essex, took some photos and drove home. I love the bonkersness of my life, I really do.

I was very tempted to stop at Colchester Zoo on my way home. I do love a zoo. But I’ll save that pleasure for another day.

I used the driving time well, catching up on some phone calls and podcasts. I dread to think how many miles I’ve drive in the past week or so. Let’s just go with a lot. Good job I love driving too.