The situation is very different to when I wrote my last blog 4 weeks ago… What a crazy couple of weeks we’ve had!
I was one of the lucky ones who just managed to make it out eventing before the British Eventing season was put on hold. I got 6 runs in at Tweseldown and Swalcliffe and fellow Windrush Rider Max Warburton and I had a 1-2 at Swalcliffe in the BE100 – I let him win this once ?
I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to find a new routine that works for the horses during lockdown. While trying to reduce any chance of extra burden on the NHS, we also had to take into consideration that most of the horses were fit, prepped and ready to go eventing – keeping them ‘ticking’ over in training is less risky for everyone and ensures the horses stay in good health. We are trying to ‘wind them down’ – so instead of riding 6 days a week, we have reduced to 5 days. They are doing a variety of work from trotting in the fields, hacking, flat work and small raised pole exercises. I set small goals each week to stay motivated and keep the horses interested – doing things we enjoy while training is really important at the moment.
We’ve also been doing lots of the jobs we kept meaning to do but never seemed to have time to! So far all the fields have been poo picked, rolled and topped, weeds and edges sprayed, poles painted, lorry washed inside and out, fence mending, lots of sweeping, and general tidying! There are going to be lots of very clean and tidy event yards by the end of April! Tack room empty and paint is next on the list.
My house mates and I even did some gardening, knocked the garage doors down and painted the side gate last weekend – isolation must be kicking in ha!
Stay Safe
Lici x
