September - December 2010.
Dylan had his last outing of the season at the Robin Hood 80km ER, things did not go to plan, but pilot error not anything wrong with the horse. A bit more show jumping and a general wind down finished of the month. Red Dragon is not possible this year or maybe even for the next 5 years as the start of term and it are likely to clash. This is a real shame as I love Red Dragon and I have had to miss it for the last two years and was really hoping to make it this year. Hey Ho
Not really much happening in October other then further winding Dylan down and me starting at Bristol Uni on my vet course. Things are a little odd living away from the husband for 5 days then coming home. Every one came in at the beginning of November and one of my neighbours is seeing to the motley crew for me. December has bought some perishing weather and very early snow, this gave us a chance to build an igloo and generally play in the snow. Filly now called Three Lows Leela has had a her initial and booster vaccination and Dylan has had his shoes off for a couple of months to give his feet some well earned R&R.
August 2010.
Dee returned from stud in foal and filly completed her change of colour while away and has grown both in stature and confidence for beeing in a herd with other foals, as can be seen below. Now mum is pregnant filly can meet the older horses which again will be good for her living in a mixed age and sex herd.
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| @S D Matthews | |||
And so the 19th came and whent and my exam results arrived..... and AAA means I am off to Bristol to be a vet!! Celebrations occured on the Tuesday the 24th when Dylan and I went Arena Eventing. This consisted of our first ever dressage test, P10 followed by a course of 2ft 6 show jumps then an arena cross country course of the same height. I hope to have another crack at this type of competition in a couple of weeks but this time over the 2ft9 course. Before that I hope to have a crack at 2ft 9 and 3ft show jumping classes on Bank Holiday Monday.
June - July 2010.
June meant more exams more revising and more canter work for Dylan. Last exam was on the 28th of june and Dylans first ride was on the 4th of July at Kings Forest 100km ER I am pleased to say we won and have a nice rug curtosey of the Animal Health Trust who kindly sponsered the ride. The 15th saw Donkey at Sollihull for the BEF Futurity grading scheme, I am pleased to say he gained a premium grade 1. On the 16th Dee and Filly whent off to Biddesden stud for Dee to be covered by Sisyrinchium, soa busy week with lots of trailering in it. Dylan had his second outing on the 25th of July at the final event at Euston Park in the 160km 3* FEI class. In between these two rides I have been doing some show jumping with Dylan and he now has 5 first in various height classes. I hope to have him jumping in 3ft classes by the end of the year. This is more about me not having jumped that kind of height for a long time then Dylan's ability, he can jump over three foot fences from a stand still when he wants to. He has been witnesed on more then one occasion jumping into the filed and over the galvinised gate.
March - May 2010.
Duiker foaled on the 16th of April and presented me with a lovely bay filly as yet not the best of presentations as she was head first with her legs tucked back so I got to assist at my first foaling, much like lambing but there is a heck of a lot more room. Glad to say the filly appeared safe and sound within 8 minutes of popping her nose out for the first time and was up and about within 3 0 minutes. Currently unnamed I can only say that she will not have a name starting with a D I get names wrong often enough as it is.
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Lamb numbers are now up to 13, one ewe does not look pregnant but may yet produce in June if Mr sheep has done his job this spring. That said she is the ewe that prolapsed about a month before giving birth. More good news in the form of a conditional offer from Bristol Uni to study vet science (AAB) and then the January exam results. I think I must have been in a strange place when sitting my biology exams as I got 100% for the AS paper and 93% for the A2 paper so I have 32.1% of an Alevel in Biology, this puts me on track for an A* and Chemistry is on target for an A.
Exams started at the end of May so most of this monthwas spent revising and riding had to fit round this. Dylan has been building up his canter work in preperation fro anER in July. Donkey is mooching and growing in prep for his Futurity apperance, he attended a local show in a younstock in hand class, unfortunately his steering deserted him in the individual show and he dropped to 4th place. I am sure we will fix this by Sollihull.
January - February 2010.
February bought a plesant suprise with the news that Dylan had won the Heart of England Group ER Trophy. Another Warrnes Hill horse and former multiple winner of this trophy was second, Delorte Zaranz. Dee continues to get fatter and the Lambs have started arriving we now have 8, 7 of which were born in the last two days.
With Christmas over it is time to start planning, Ideally Dylan will be aiming to do a couple more ER rides including a 160k. I would like to work towards getting my five 2 and 3* completions so in the long term I would be eligible for team qualification. There is however no rush given Dylans youth so we will probably only enter 2-3 rides this year. For various reasons we are not looking to start competing this year till about June so the long spells of snow we have been experiencing are not too much of a problem.
