Wrestling with rubber

Bet this blog title will drag in a few non-horsey bods when they google it :-) Hope they aren't too disappointed...

Short blog today because the new surface top-up for the arena finally arrived last night. There have been production hitches, haulage delays and hassles too numerous to mention, all of which have been out of my control which makes things even worse. 

However by 9pm yesterday, and thanks to the help of my friends and neighbours, all 20 tonnes of the new rubber was on Devon soil but only 4 tonnes had been unloaded and spread so there will be a lot to do today(!). Once the arena is useable again there is masses to catch up on, so I will be blogging loads of updates after that. 

Meantime, I wanted to share these pics, taken at the weekend. The top one is of Kate and Saffy who went out jumping. Saffy was here 2 years ago and is looking a million dollars! It has not been an easy road for this pair at all which makes updates like this all the more precious. 

Saffy was bred to jump, though, and has all the talent in the world; Kate says: 

"She is absolutely amazing at the moment Nic. Feel like I finally have my beautiful horse back. Just need to learn how to control this power house beast...hence starting with small fences, lol. It seems I forgot how powerful she was as well till she remembered what jumping was all about and reminded me I was a mere pea on a mountain."

And a lovely photo of Krista and Buddy, who went out competing again and came back with more frillies - 3rd with 67% and 5th in a higher grade with 64% :-) There are more pics and the whole story on Buddy's blog, but as Krista said:

"Lots to work on and the canter still needs loads of work but the trot work got us 8's so once that's nailed we should be moving up the ranks - I'm pleased with 64%."

Awesome job by both of you and so lovely to see :-)