Off to Stud

We took Ruby off to Stud this morning. It's quite a nice drive, about 40 minutes up the motorway so not too much hastle. She's getting really good at going in the trailer - just walks in and stands while you fiddle around tying up, putting the ramp up etc and spends the journey looking out the window!

The vet will scan her tomorrow to see if she's coming into season. Unfortunately it's almost impossible to tell with her. Fingers crossed that she is and she can be covered straight away. Then we can bring her home again in a couple of days. Not sure whether she'll be AI'd this time. Still it shouldn't make any difference.

Everyone at the stud knows her even though they must deal with hundreds of mares! I'm not sure that's a good thing.

The Pen Again

http://www.teamchasing.co.uk/

One of the sequences in Pictures from the Meynell 2007 shows Team No 110 The Moorbridge Mayhems at the Pen. The pen in this case is madeup of white rails to form the pen and hurdles as the obstacles. It could be anything - hedges, post and rails so this isn't really the best example....

At the Fernie the pen was post and rails on three sides set against a farm building (a traditional cattle yard with an earth floor). The Warwickshire was an enclosure made up of post and rails between two hedges.

The Pen Explained

Zorya, Charlie, George and Fly pose for a photo, all looking fairly intelligent. (shame the same couldn't be said for the jockeys!)

Then everything went a bit pear-shaped! But this piccy does show how well the horses all look after a long long winter.

Anyway, the Pen explained.

The rules are a bit complicated but basically it is where there are two obstacles, one into and one out of an enclosure. So as not to incur penalties at least three members of the team (twelve hooves and three mounted riders) must be in the pen at any one time. ie to have jumped in but not yet jumped out. It can be a bit tricky if the team has some very quick and some not so quick horses. Especially if braking is a problem. Because the competition is timed on the first three competitors past the finish it makes it a bit less of a procession and more of a collaborative team effort.

Some competitions have a 'dressing' fence where the team members jump a fence all abreast. I haven't seen one in recent competitions and I don't know if they are still included in some.

For those of you with a nervous disposition...

Please Look Away Now!

Last weekend I was once more on Team Chasing duties as Annie was off on a jaunt to Suffolk. Fortunately the weather had been fairly good so there was no necessity to bath the horse before taking her. Just a good once over to get what little mud there was off.


This time the trip was to south Warwickshire, not an area that I visit a lot, but one shrouded in folklore and tales of witchcraft.

Not that there was much sign of such supernatural goings on last weekend. No, the scariness was down to both the up-hill-and-down-dale nature of the course, coupled with the size of the bloomin' fences! Zorya is not a bold horse. In fact she may at times be accused of being a little wussy. Not that you could tell from this picture. There were 24 fences on the course, the final two after a steep climb.


I didn't walk the course with the team, not because I get nervous but I wanted to keep Claire (one of the mums) company because she gets quite fearful. So it wasn't until the teams were about to start that I saw the last fence. I couldn't believe how big it was. Nearly 5 ft! I cheerfully pointed out that it was a brush and once a few teams had gone round it would have decreased in size with horses jumping through rather than over it. OK, I was just trying to make Claire feel better. Unfortunately by the time the rest of the team got to the monster brush fences, Hattie had already parted company from her horse, Fly, and was busy trying to catch her. When the rest of the team got to the brush fences they were just as big! They all managed to negotiate them safely and came out of the whole thing with a little bruised pride and some thorns picked up from those wicked brush fences!