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Horse Shopping In Wales

Had a lovely visit to Wales this week, it was lovely to catch up with Joy and Ken Lewis who own Token Bow Stud. I love it there loads of lovely horses with foals at foot and stunning mountain views. 

Ant and Joy drove up the mountain in an old 4 wheel drive while I enjoyed the walk taking in the amazing views, I had to walk fast so I could open all the gates for them, luckily they drove slowly as the terrain is pretty lumpy. When we eventually get to the top of Joys fields there are still huge mountain hillsides towering way above us. 

I bought a foal who is full brother to my nice 2 year old Diva. They are by Goosford Designer Genes who is by Goshka Ringo. We are really impressed by the temperament, movement and jump of the youngstock we have bought previously from this stallion.

Then in a moment of madness we also bought a 3 year old filly as a project as she is too small for me really, but a really nice type and is sister to my 2 year old Dippy being out of the same mare, she is also related to Rif Raf, an Auntie, as she is by Rif Rafs Grandad.

Homme House Eventing

Had a busy day at Homme House. Despite it being our local event we began with an early alarm call as  Rif Raf had 8.06 dressage. She did a fab test and then a clear SJ. Then she had a fun time XC apart from when I rode rubbish at the final element of the coffin, I was far too lapse, trusted her too much and I didn't sit up at all, we were on a long one and she decided "it's easier to go round the side of this one!!"

 She was really fun to ride though, she loves XC.

I had a 2 hour break until my next ride which was lucky as I was booked to walk the XC with Putley Pony Club. These were a group of lovely children who had been working hard as the official SJ arena party over the 2 days of Homme Horse Trials. They were all really enthusiastic about the course walk, asking lots of questions. 

Next I met up with Imran who was in charge of the children from St James City Farm in Gloucester. http://www.stjamescityfarm.co.uk/ 

They were guests of Homme Horse Trials and had come to learn more about the care of competition horses, two of the children want to go pony racing, so the care after XC was of particular interest to them. They watched me compete my 4 year old Massimo. They were really keen to learn, helping me wash him off afterwards and then holding the studs as I took each one out. 

 I had my own fan club as they all clapped as we jumped each XC fence clear. Massimo gave me a fab ride, really bold and confident, I was really pleased with him and am certain with this attitude he will go at least 2* in the future.

Fab photo taken by one of the children, thank you. 

Rider Who I coach wins Gold for Great Britain

Feeling such a proud coach today. 

Saffron Cresswell who I have coached and inspired to go Eventing since she was first put on a pony when she was about 4 years old has won Team Gold today at the Pony Europeans in Sweden.

Just such an amazing and outstanding result. 

Professor Sprout at His first Show

Sprout has been broken just 4 weeks and I decided he was ready for his first ever show outing. He was so good, he loaded perfectly, looking all grown up with tail brushed out smart and he was wearing travel boots for the first time.

He sweat a teeny bit on the half hour journey and once he was out of the lorry he was calm and confident taking in all the new sites and sounds of his first horse show. 

A new star in the making. 

Video of his clear round is here http://youtu.be/iJ1rhExCGMg

Belated Hen do with Alvescot Massimo at Gatcombe

CCHad a lovely time at Gatcombe today with Massimo in the BYEH 4 year old class. He was a bit nosey in his dressage about the other horse SJ in the arena next to him but performed a nice test. He then jumped a very bold confident & clear Show Jumping round. He scored really well in the conformation and type 9 and 7 a total of 16 out of 20, one of the highest marks. 

Although clear SJ his jumping technique wasn't mature enough yet to score highly. We knew this would be the case when we entered but felt it would be fab experience for him to compete at Gatcombe. See his SJ round on this link.

http://youtu.be/ejxcU9ukYlM

Emma and Nikki were my official grooms for the day as Ant stayed at home (he only likes coming when I have a chance of a place or if I am riding a tricky one and need his advice) we then met up with our friend Louise with her tiny baby Martha. Then with pram & 4 dogs in tow we all went shopping. :-)

This was my belated hen do!!!!  Nikki and Emma announced the hen day rule was we weren't allowed to buy anything to eat until we had each purchased something off our equine shopping list. Emma led the shopping by buying a lightweight jacket, then Nikki bought Rif Raf a new headcollar.

We were all about to faint as I only had 2 things on my shopping list and I was very slow at choosing the new chaps I needed. I eventually (only because I hadn't had breakfast, it was 1 pm & I was really truly going to faint with hunger) bought some lovely Ariat Chaps, but OMG they were £99.99. 

Then we had lunch, rustic chicken cooked on bricks with a lovely salad that had tasty sauces and goats cheese, peas and beans added to it, all washed down with a nice glass of fruit cordial.

Then it was a quick look at the XC and off home.

Eventing in the Rain & Married in the Sunshine

Massimo was once again a star when I took him to Allens Hill Eventer Training on a very wet Friday.

29 dressage and then jumped fab in the 90 with just one rail down in the XC section. Not sure where he finished but I am guessing somewhere between 2nd and 4th. I left before the results were out as I had an important day to organise, Ant and I were getting married the next day!

The sun shone all day. It was the perfect day we had hoped for, being both fun and relaxed, everyone seemed to be smiling and laughing all day. The Wedding began at 4 pm and we had the most amazing day with almost all of our friends and family with us. The tables were all named after horse colours, the theme was my XC colours, blue and pink, and we had horses and horse shoes on the cake. Well we had to really with Ant being a farrier!

Below pic, two of my best friends Nikki Cox and Emma Horton Smith who helped me with my hair, make up, and kept me supplied with sweets and my fav drink, diet Pepsi. Emma was also an expert on working the hotels room service ordering champagne flutes for our diet Pepsi to go in, and she knew where the hair dryer was for when my nails wouldn't dry. Although when nails still wouldn't dry, 20 mins before the ceremony Nikki turned into a hero dashing into Boots The Chemists for varnish remover and fast drying varnish.  On her return she made us laugh announcing she definitely didn't get any odd looks at shopping in Boots with a large feather on her head!!!!

Eventing guests included Louise Harwood and her mum Jackie Skelton, they drove from Aston Le Walls just to be with us on our special day and then, after dancing all night, drove the 2 hours back again as they had more horses competing the next day, they were also celebrating an Advanced win on Whitson. Also dancing almost all night were Badminton 4* rider Josephine Challens (who now has my retired advanced eventer Icon to hunt)  & GB pony team rider Saffron Cresswell. It was also great to have along 2* rider Tom Searle, European Gold Medalist Claire Oliver with her showman husband Robert Oliver and also Horse & Hound/Eventing Mag reporter Louise Calverley, who also caught the bouquet, although she didn't have much choice as I crept up behind her and threw it onto her lap!!!! 

We made everyone laugh by starting our first dance with one of our favourite songs Paul Macartneys "Yesterday" but the lyrics are totally unsuitable for a wedding, so I pretended to be very cross which every one chuckled at, and then the real song came on Elvis "I can't help falling in love with you" which appropriately starts with "Wise men say only fools rush in" Ant and I have been together 24 and a half years!!!! 

Our day was made extra special as once the evening had finished and we were on the way up to our room, we had a huge round of applause in the Hotel bar from The Proclaimers and their road crew who were relaxing after an evening playing in the nearby Malvern Winter gardens.

Here are some of the photos. 

P.S. I am now called Mrs Stella Bunn! 

Below a dance with my lovely Dad.

A huge thank you to Tomas our event supervisor from the Abbey Hotel who made our day completely perfect, nothing was too much trouble. 

And finally thank you to everyone who contributed to our day.