And the other side

Of our new stand looks like this.......................











And some very sad saints look like this........














I just love Neil Best. He's almost Tiggerish in his badness! Although to be fair, he's not being bad here!

Our (big) little girl

Kanga was 5 months old last week (17th) and she's abso-bloomin-lutely HUGE!

She hasn't had as much handling as she might have done so is being a bit naughty but, after last week when she kept rearing and got her leg over the lead rope and scared herself, she's just done little rears and thrown her front legs about quite a bit.

And on an altogether different note, it was the first home game of the season last night and the official opening of the new stand. Now my seat isn't in the new stand, but I get a lovely view of it. And very impressive it looked too. It has 10,000 seats and all of them were occupied. I was concerned that moving the stand back from the pitch would dilute the cauldron-like atmosphere and I expect for people sitting there it's difficult to 'feel' part of the action, but the roar was immense (although the Crumbie did win noise-wise cheering the boys on during the warm-up)

New Baby

This is my new Timbertop Thurmaston, purchased from Farnham on Saturday. I seriously thought the lady who was selling it wouldn't let me take it away unless I proved I could spin properly with it. She insisted on me having a go on it for about half an hour. ra had a go too. It's lovely and spins really beautifully, and it's in lovely condition. Made of Yew wood, it's marked as 89 (made in 1989) 1378 (Mr Williamson's 1378th wheel).

Since I got it home, I've spun and plied 2 skeins of brown Shetland and I'm just starting on some grey. It treadles beautifully but it's more highly geared than I'm used to, but I am slowly getting more control.

Some Bad News

Em Txt me last night while I was on my way to Als' for dinner....

"Omg GB broke his leg in the stable and had to b shot last night. Poor jess! x."

Jess and GB had only just got together this summer, mainly for the Area Dressage. And done really well (the best of the intermediate team). GB was a gorgeous grey, owned by my old riding instructor. He was a beautiful horse, a former show hunter and one of Jack's mates, although they did try to nick food off each other. He and Jess got on really well.


Here are the Intermediate Dressage team. From the left we have: Bryn, Jack, GB and Shan. They pointedly refused to all look at the camera together but this was about the best we could get!

And it went like this

The good......

Their best dressage score yet! 34.(something).


The Bad.......

Still needs more work on the showjumping. Four fences down. He can jump, he just finds it all a bit of a lark....

and The Ugly



Jack says: "Oh, you wanted ME to jump it"

Fortunately they were none the worse for it and managed to re-mount and finish the course. Just a muddy pair of Jodphurs, a lost shoe and a bit of dented pride!




Respect to Em for getting back on and having another go.

And tomorrow is.....

Area Eventing.

In the past two weeks we've done Area Dressage and Area Showjumping. The dressage is OK but the show jumping leaves a little to be desired. Jack just doesn't take plastic poles seriously! And we've had to travel to the farthest-flung corner of Area 7 for both. Happily the Eventing is only at Moreton Morrell so we can leave at a reasonable time tomorrow morning.

Let's hope it eventually stops raining.

Jack Eventing

I'm just getting the hang of my new camcorder. Dressage and show jumping was OK but the cross country was a bit more difficult. It's all right until you try and move at the same time. Very easy to lose the fences!




Jack's now a semi-permanent fixture. Long story but it involved him getting stuck halfway over a hedge. Full details to follow......