Nina Ligon and her horses have arrived safely in England, where they’re settling in at the Waresley Park Stud outside Cambridge. They’ll spend the next three-and-a-half months training and competing in the lead-up to the Olympics, where Nina will have the added pressure of being the only equestrian representing Thailand. Thanks for writing this, Nina—we look forward to more postcards from abroad—and thanks as always, Eventing Nation, for reading.
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And we’re off!
Team Thailand has officially moved house…literally. I’m sure many of you have noticed by now that we don’t pack light, but somehow we’ve managed to squeeze our lives into 52 trunks, bags, and assorted boxes. I half expected my mom to start tearing down the rafters and sneaking them in next to the electric fencing supplies.
After a year of packing, unpacking, and repacking the thought of staying put for 3 months is exceedingly appealing. We will be making our home away from home at Waresley Park Stud, a top-notch eventing facility equipped with an indoor arena, two all weather gallop tracks (one flat and one hilly), and a xc course. The staff here keeps the place immaculate at all times and has helped make the transition as smooth as possible.
We’ve been given two large paddocks out on the xc field (about a mile walk), and have put our electric fencing to good use by dividing them into four smaller paddocks. Perhaps we should have packed up the rafters; then we could have built them some sheds! The grass is lush and the boys are happy to have plenty of turnout. They have all settled well into a their new routine, however, the brisk English air has made them all a little cheeky. Paddy (Tipperary Liadhnan) managed to get the paddock gate open, and we found him grazing happily around the perimeter of his field. Luckily Waresely is a park of 80 acres with fencing all around and they have never had a horse get loose onto the main roads. Nevertheless, there is a lot of pavement around the facility, so if a horse did get loose they could easily go skating back to the barn.
