Warren Farm is clearly the place to be. There are new horses arriving here almost daily. I guess math doesn’t work the same here as it does in North America. We have 4 empty stalls at the moment. There are 5 horses scheduled to return from Portugal this week. There are also 3 other horses coming in around that time. I have a feeling things are going to get “interesting”. The good news is I get to ride more and more each day. We currently have about 50 horses in work, and about 10 broodmares and young horses.
The week before Lucy left for Portugal, Yogi Breisner was here to give her lessons on a few of her Advanced horses. Yogi travels to the top riders as opposed to the riders travelling to him. Things seem to work a little bit differently here than in North America. In England there is lottery funding for the Senior team members, but also for some of the Junior and Young Riders, obviously to a lesser extent. There is currently a working student here that is a Junior and he receives some funding to help pay for his competitions and training. Hmmmm, wouldn’t that be nice…
While Yogi was here teaching, the school had representatives from all over the world. We had a Canadian, a Frenchman, a Brazilian, a Swede, and obviously some British as well all in the school together. As I was trotting around on my own horse, Sneaky, Yogi calls me into the middle and asks me my name. I told him, and Lucy explained to him that I was Canadian, perhaps as some sort of explanation for my craziness? It was then decided on the spot that I was to blame for the lack of snow in Vancouver for the Olympics, and also some sort of problem with the buses. I told him I would see what I could do. But anyways, he asked me if the horse I was riding was mine and that she was nice, and proceeded to tell me something to correct my position. I thought it was very nice of the British Chef d’Equipe to take the time to help a random Canadian rider he had never met before.
The first event of the season for all the horses that haven’t been to Portugal is this coming weekend. I can hardly wait! We are going to Aldon which is about 3 hours away. I am entered in the Novice, the equivalent to Preliminary in the US and Canada, as Miss Lindsay Pearce. Rather more formal here. To prepare we have been to some jumper and dressage shows, and also been cross country schooling. I was feeling a little bit rusty with the cross country since my last event was at Richland Park last August, but luckily I got to school my own horse as well as a couple others so I got a lot of practice in. We have a lot of horses competing at Aldon this weekend. Something like 10 on Friday, 6 others on Saturday, and 6 more on Sunday. Sounds like a lot of braiding! Or should I say “plaiting”. Apparently braiding involves extensions and beads!!
Here’s to hoping (think happy thoughts for me!) my first British event goes well and that we have all kept Lucy’s horses going well enough in her absence that she has a successful weekend!
