Oh wow its been soooo long since I had time to sit down and write it all down. Blame Top Barn (haha). So where were we???? Oh Yeah Week 5. With 2.5 hours done, THE WEATHER GOT ME!!!! Despite only half an hour to go, the final day brought SNOW......Lots of SNOW!!!! Sideways Blizzard in High Winds Kind of Snow. Just seeing to the Ponies was enough!! So I used my Rollover Week, with 2hr 45mins in the Bank I only have 15mins to make up (which I still haven't done).
So week 6 started with SNOW!!!! So much SNOW. So much SNOW if fact that the little town I live in was cut off from the World. Even the Snow Plough got stuck!!! I tried for 2.5hours to get to the Yard. Every which way was cut off by enormous SNOW Drifts. Luckily Jo got through and the horses were watered and fed. If I hadn't got Dodgy Lungs and a Dicky Ticker, I would have walked the 5 miles.....but Mark The Mechanic and Part Time Horse Whisperer banned me from even trying. I discovered my Land-rover has had the Prop-shaft removed, thereby turning it into a 2wd. I discovered this while going down the road sideways, while all the engine lights came on, telling me that Traction Control, ABS etc was off. I had already figured we shouldn't be half-passing down the road!! Although if it had been a horse, the movement would have been impressive.
The rest of Week 6 did not improve!!!! The snow kept coming, the East Wind kept blowing. The drifts were so big, we struggled with just hay and water. It was so bad we even rugged the Big Herd, as they had no shelter from the direction of the Weather. I declared Week 6 my Holiday Week. Jo took it as her Rollover Week.
Luckily Week 7 brought a thaw. We rejoiced as the temperature climbed to a whopping 4c. We only had a few days left to film the Mid Challenge Competition, so we practiced. I had several attempts at filming , but the Pivo couldn't seem to follow us for a whole take! On the Thursday, with 3 days to spare, Mark the Mechanic and Part-time Horse Whisper said he had 10 minutes to spare to film me. It was getting dark!!! I rushed over to meet him, pulled Charlie off the Hay and offered a practice run. We didn't have time!!! So we did it in the first take with the sun rapidly setting. Charlie was a star. We did the whole course at liberty without even a headcollar. We went under an arch with streamers, over a wooden pallet, touched and rung a bell, round a jump wing covered in streamers, jumped through the hoop, waved a flag, smiled and bowed. We didn't get placed (ahhhh boo), but i was very proud of my clever, complicated cob! Jo left it even later, being buggered by strong winds, but did a brilliant course on the Final Day, which included Lu following her while blind-folded. We had to do a very swift video conversion from my phone to a memory stick.
Thank you Top Barn for giving us something very concrete to work on, and Well Done everyone who took part. The creativity that went into some of the performances was astonishing!
Week 8...Time to stop messing about and get on Charlie. I have been trying for 4 years to ride him! Slowly I go....Doing the Groundwork. Gently presenting the saddle, and the Rider (me). Sometimes it has been OK. Most times not. I have ended up on the floor more than I haven't!! He basically goes into full panic mode when he can't see me. Being partially blind in the Offside eye hasn't helped. Catching sight of a movement coupled with Mum not at his head, has sent him from OK to Terrified in 0.2 seconds. Once terrified, he has lost the plot, setting us back to me not even being able to show him the saddle without a violent reaction.
So after all these years, doing tricks, walk outs blah blah blah, it finally feels like he is ready. He trusts me, he is fully grown, and has a new grown up outlook. So week 8 was mostly spent Tacking up, getting on, getting off, getting on, getting off....you get it. We even tried a few steps forward being led by Jo. All good!!!
Week 9 has been the high-point so far.....With a beautiful calm sunny day on Tuesday, I got on Charlie and rode him round the "School", following Jo and Lu in hand. Naturally the Pivo chose this moment to not record !!! Then the wind got up, so we worked on Chill Mode, Lateral Work and Balloons (obviously).
Week 10 has brought us 50mph wind most of the week, along with hail, sun, rain, freezing fingers!!! Oh yes.....The weather for this Challenge has certainly been challenging!! I have stuck to groundwork this week.....and balloon popping!
So 2 more weeks to go!!!! It would be nice if we had some calm spring sunshine to finish off with. But that doesn't look like that's going to happen. So lets all gird our loins for a big finish!!!
