It’s quite a long way from Nutley to Wellington Equestrian but it is well worth the effort. I went two days running, jumping Heidi in the Newcomers on Monday where she jumped a lovely double clear for 7th place and then jumped Kvint in his first 1.30 of the year. He jumped brilliantly but was just a bit strong to the final fence for four faults. The following day I jumped Heidi in her first Foxhunter, she had the first two fences down, which isn’t unusual when they step up at this level, they are used to the first few fences being very easy and suddenly they take a bit more jumping. She then settled well and jumped a great round, especially through the combination and in the jump-off part which was a bit bigger. I managed a repeat performance on Kvint, frustrating, but he is jumping fabulously and the rider just needs to sharpen up a bit.

Wellington really is a fabulous show centre. A lovely arena and big warm-up; good educational courses built by Ben Townley for this show; light modern materials and fantastic organisation.On the way to Wellington on Tuesday I dropped Askeaton at Sussex Equine Hospital for her MRI scan. The results came back that she has a severe bone bruise on her pedal bone. Probably the best diagnosis I could have hoped for, so she has 12 weeks box rest and then, hopefully a slow return to work. Mike Barrott has just looked at her after six weeks and she trotted up sound, so hopefully she is on Track for a successful return to work.
The following weekend I took both horses to Felbridge. Heidi had a spin round the Newcomers and then jumped her first Foxhunter double clear. I was over the moon with her.

Kvint jumped a fantastic double clear in the 1.30 to finish 4th in a fantastically competitive class.

It’s not like us to have a lot of holidays but this Autumn seems to have been a particularly good one. We spent the first weekend in November in Portugal with Mark’s tennis four, who are all very old friends. This coincided with the Rugby World Cup finals so was a sport centred weekend with the boys fitting in their tennis round the Rugby leaving us WAGS to lie in the sun and chat. Nigel had just turned on his pool hearing for the first time and it was warm enough to have a lovely swim too.
Sara and Nigel are fabulous hosts so we had a lovely boat trip to a little island for lunch, and then a very, very long bike ride for a well deserved picnic the second day and a delicious lunch and walk on the beach on Sunday. I made a quick trip to Vilamoura on Sunday to watch David and Louise Simpson and have a recce if the show ground. It was a perfect relaxing weekend. Fantastic company, excellent food and competitive board games. Codenames is a super competitive cross between Battleships and The Name Game, passing some super competitive evenings.

In order to progress and keep young horses coming through I have always sold my older horses as and when they were ready. Emma and Luna are the only ones who we’ve ever kept. I have known for some while that Kvint wouldn’t be staying for ever. He’s such a lovely, easy horse and has been super competitive. Just as I was packing up to take him and Heidi to Kronenberg Trevor Breen called me to ask if he was for sale. The deal was done easily and very quickly and he has even jumped three double clears with his new owner Kate van de Bovenkamp. I think Kvint is the nearest thing to a Unicorn you could ever ride and it’s lovely to feel totally confident that he will do a wonderful job for Kate. He gave me my best ever 2* result in the 1.35 Speed Class in Lier - I am still convinced that the timing wasn’t working properly, but he shone in very grown-up company and made me a very coveted memory.

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We had a lovely family weekend for Rory’s christening with the whole family at home. It coincided with Sophie and Alex’s first wedding anniversary. What a difference a year makes. We would have been beyond stressed if we were trying to put up a marquee in the garden this November.

Without Kvint the yard seems very quiet, and I really couldn’t face taking Heidi by herself to jump in the pouring rain at Felbridge last weekend, so we’ve had a quiet couple of weeks trying to dodge the rain and the mud. Elena Watson has an exciting new ride in Pakkse F, so we’ve been getting to know him and I have seen some nice youngsters so fingers crossed Kvint’s box won’t be empty for long

This blog is rather late getting published as I wrote it waiting to take off to go to Cuba, and then found I couldn’t send it due to Cuban censoring!

As always many thanks to those that make this all possible, Camilla, April, Amy and Esther, Mark’s endless help and patience, and my fantastic sponsors, Saracen Horse Feeds, Precision Solutions, MacWet Gloves, and Just Equine.