Following on from the Royal Highland Show, we had entered the sheep for the Great Yorkshire, and John and I were planning on heading down with Trudy the truck to spend the week on the show ground. More on that later.
Having spend the earlier part of the year focusing on getting Jack fit enough for eventing, we have so far only managed to compete at Montrave, Eden Valley and Scone. Having said that, Jack has gone very well each time. Floors, Balcarres, Central Scotland, and Oatridge all had to abandon due to the weather, so I waited with my fingers crossed to hear that Burgham was running - and it was!
Unfortunately I headed over to SNEC to take Jack to a BS show the week before only to find that he was
lame. It turns out he developed an abscess, so poor Mum who was house sitting during our few days in Barcelona had to poultice his foot every day - thanks Mum!
Unfortunately we still haven't managed a run since May but I have just entered Cumwhinton, Drumclog and Hendersyde so everyone keep your fingers crossed!
The local area side-saddle group ran their summer show recently and Helen had kindly offered to lend me Mack to ride. The weather was awful and I had wondered if we should bother going, however it was probably a good job as there were competitors from Cumbria and Aberdeen there – we had only driven 15 minutes up the road!!
Mack was a star, it is his third time with a side saddle on and he went beautifully. Coming 1st in the novice horse class
Ready to go:
Judging:
Afterwards:
Video of our show: copy and paste in a new browser - http://youtu.be/gzbewB0kEcw
Big round of applause for Mack
So onto the Great Yorkshire:
We loaded up the lorry and headed down.
Managing to squeeze the sheep in the horse end of Trudy. They travelled really well:
Once we arrived and they were settled in
the barn:
We managed to park the lorry up – amazingly
very close to the sheep so only a short walk to the pens!
As it was our first time away, it was a
good chance to try out all of the gadgets.
We checked the water heater, the tv, dvd player, oven and grill –
everything works!
On Tuesday morning, after a great nights
sleep we got the sheepies ready for showing.
What a fabulous result, Rudolph – our champion at the Royal Highland – was
pulled in to Breed Champion at the Great Yorkshire. I have to admit I was jumping up and down
with excitement.
Sadly following the showing on the Tuesday
the Great Yorkshire organisers had to abandon the rest of the show, so our week
away was shortened to two nights! This
turned out to be a good thing as our poor house sitter had returned from work
on Tuesday evening to find Islay – aka the-best-dog-in-the-world – had been ill and there was vomit
and diarr all over the house. She rushed
her through to the vets school and was admitted with pancreatitis. Poor Islay was very ill and I couldn’t hold
her paw as I was in Yorkshire so after heading up on Wednesday night (had the show not cancelled I
would have headed home anyway) I drove through to see her.
Thankfully she was much brighter and came
home on the Friday to lots of TLC:
She is a fab dog. :D
So now we are heading off to the Border
Union this weekend, and then the national sheep show in a fortnight. Will keep
you posted!
Just before I go, I’d like to introduce you
to Spock. I don’t think I have mentioned
him on here before but I bought Spock as a companion for Jack following the
loss of Charlie. Spock is a yearling and
is very funny! He won’t let me catch him in the field, preferring to follow
Jack into the building, then into his stable!
Apart from that he is a perfect companion (although I think jack would
argue he’s a bit small!)
