At the end of a busy Easter Weekend I collected the horses on Monday. For some reason best known to myself I thought they would be well behaved and just eat grass if I turned them out! Askeaton had a buck, a roll, and a run round the tree and had lost a shoe within two minutes, and Breakdance jumped out of his field losing a shoe in the process! Immediate text of shame to the farriers in order that I would be able to do anything with the mad bunch at all.

I have been really lucky in that bringing the horses home has coincided with Ellie Collins coming back to work for me on a part-time basis to fit in with her flourishing transport business. It's a huge relief to have someone who knows us all so well, and is brilliant with the horses and me, and lovely Phoebe Taylor and Beverley Eatton are able to do some days too to make up a bit of a team. It's been great having a break from their day to day management, I think it's helped me see what I need a little more clearly, and it was definitely a good time to have them off the fields here with the dreadful weather.

It's been a short week with a run up to a two day show at Felbridge as the goal. The horses had two days of hacking, and various shoes back on. I then gave them a quick jump at home before having a lesson with Louise Simpson on Friday. Louise made it very simple, and provided a much needed confidence boost for the weekend. All three horses went really well and I felt set up for the weekend.

Saturday at Felbridge was incredibly busy, Breakdance jumped a lovely round in the Newcomers, bar a mad moment from me at fence two, and both Askeaton and Arietta jumped lovely clears. I finished the day feeling very calm and confident. Many thanks to Karen Rees for coming to help.

On Sunday Breakdance jumped what I thought was a lovely clear, but actually brushed the fourth fence! However, once again he felt great, and much more grown up, but perhaps a little bit weary. It's a while since they did a two day show and it's all part of growing up to save some energy for days two and three. Askeaton jumped a super clear round, and was bizarrely twice as fresh as on Saturday, and Arietta jumped a nice round in the Foxhunter, albeit for two fences down, but she felt confident and made it feel easy. Many thanks to Sharon Moore for helping.

Finally the horses had a lovely sunny day to go in the field yesterday. It has dried up a lot and they managed a good roll and graze and no lost shoes. Hopefully the weather won't get too wet again, and we can manage to get them out regularly now. I really believe that hacking and turn-out help the horses to stay healthy both physically and mentally.

As always many thanks to Elllie, Phoebe and Mark and to my supporters, Saracen Horse Feeds, Protexin Equine, Just Equine, MacWet Gloves and NDS Equine.