Felbridge February 2022

It's always a nice day at Felbridge, although it was bitterly cold. I suppose not particularly surprising for February in England! It was lovely to catch up with more friends and feel that life is finally a bit more normal, hopefully we are not in for too many more surprises.
We had a very long day as I decided that a spin round the Discovery would be a good thing for both Askeaton and Khalissy. Askeaton jumped a lovely clear, and Khalissy had one totally unnecessary pole due to being a bit fresh.
They both jumped lovely rounds in the Newcomers with Askeaton finishing just out of the money in an incredibly quick Newcomers. When Melissa Garry is the one before you, goes inside everywhere and still goes into 4th, you know it's a very quick class!
I decided it might be a good idea to jump Arietta in a snaffle in the Newcomers - an experiment that definitely didn't work! She's a very good girl, but I need to have some input, so it was back to her plastic pelham for the Foxhunter. She jumped beautifully apart from a slight misunderstanding at the second last. They say it takes a year to really build a relationship with a new horse - ours is coming along, but sometimes despite our efforts to understand one another we still get it wrong. To be fair I can still get it wrong with Askeaton and Khalissy who I have had from the beginning of their careers. Hopefully we'll be back at Felbridge next Thursday for another go.
It has been very helpful having Alex Hempleman's input for the past couple of weeks, and I'm looking forward to some more help in the coming weeks.
Khalissy is now a month into her ulcer treatment, and although there is minimal difference in her ride (although I feel happier to use more leg in the fairly safe knowledge that it's not uncomfortable for her) it is interesting to see that she is much happier grazing in the field now, and will actually have a roll in the field now, which weirdly she has never done before.
We are plodding on with the Spanish admin. With the help of Shelley Ashman and Cinder Hill Equine I feel that the horse admin is under control, the lorry has had a good tidy up from Aspire Horseboxes and just needs a good service and hopefully it will be good to go. Luckily it had it's EU certification last year - that would have been more than I could have coped with this year. Just human admin to go now, and hopefully not too many more COVID related rule changes either before we go, or while we are in transit.