April Fools Day and we got caught as ‘fools’ unintentionally. Today Derg Boru did his dressage and stadium in the Intermediate division at Rocking Horse. His owner Megan Woods was unable to ride him as planned and Selena was given the ride in her place. She phoned the organizers and gave them the updated information, which they happily accepted. Unfortunately neither Selena nor the organizers looked carefully enough at the original entry which was in the ‘Intermediate Rider’ division. Sadly, Selena’s days of being able to compete in the ‘Intermediate Rider’ division are long past. So there she was, sitting third in the division with the cross country to go the next day when she found out she could only run HC. It didn’t seem worthwhile to run him HC so we withdrew him from XC and saved his energy for The Fork the following week. This was a bit of a let down but she still has ‘Souvereign’ AKA Sammy to ride on the weekend which is consolation. The photo is Derg Boru show jumping (photo by Megan Woods).
It is threatening to get cold here at home. We had a lovely 11-degree day, but the rumour is that we are going to have sub zero temperatures and snow in the next few days…snow? Really? It’s hard to believe with the sun shining today. We have a one star horse here at Balsam Hall that is getting ready for Plantation in two weeks. He did his gallop day today out in the big sand rings. The grass is too wet to ride on but our sand rings are both huge, approx 100m x 40m each and they have great footing whether it’s wet or not. Great footing, non slip but SLOPPY and the horse, his rider and his tack came back a lot dirtier than they went out.
Today is the birthday of the cutest dog in the world (OK, I am biased). Six years ago today I was in Ocala to help Selena drive the horses home. We went to Bruce and Susie Davidson’s to say goodbye and found that their little dog Bangle had just had her puppies at three in the morning. We were there at six in the morning and I picked up and held a little scrap of a thing and that was it. The little mouse was to be mine. I named him Rupert and he is the apple of my eye. I had always wanted a little black and tan boy from the Davidson breeding program but on the day there were four black and tans and one tri-color. Guess who picked up the tri-color and never even looked at the long awaited black and tan. 🙂 Happy Birthday Rupert.
