South East Eventers League (SEEL) Ball - Saturday 4 December 2010

photo taken by: Lulu Kyriacou

Had a great time at the SEEL Seahorse Ball on Saturday 4 December. A group of 12 friends came to enjoy the evening at the Hop Farm in Paddock Wood.

Holly and I were placed in two of the categories this year - 2nd in the Leading Mare and 6th in the Leading Owner/Rider.

There was less opportunity this year for Holly and I to gain lots of points as we are competing at Open Intermediate and also moved up to Advanced.

Dinner at the ball was melon (must admit I prefer my fruit for pudding!) traditional turkey dinner and chocolate fudge cake. The chocolate fudge cake was huge! I put all of the left over cake onto one plate and we challenged Matthew to eat the lot - he did very well but didn't quite manage it!

As usual lots of drinks were consumed and I spent a large part of the evening on the Bronco Bull. I was leading for most of the evening on 64 seconds. Pipped at the post by Sam Penn who managed to stay on for 70 seconds I couldn't better it with my best score being 67 seconds! I have really been feeling the pain though with blisters on my knees and they are only just healing!

I spotted Sharon Hunt and Sasha Pemble on the bull too! I also saw Alex Hua Tian who was collecting an award.

The SEEL is great and there are so many people that put in a lot of effort to make sure the league keeps running and obviously all of the sponsors too who are very generous.

Fingers crossed for next year - who knows with Lady now back in work she may feature in the Leading Mare again!!

Long overdue post - not enough hours in the day, week, year!!

I find myself apologising again for the lack of blog entries!! Just realised it's Friday the 13th!

I have been so busy recently any spare time I have I'm too tired to do anything!

Most exciting news recently is that James and I bought a house!!! I'm spending every spare hour sanding walls, ripping up skirting boards and painting. It's looking a bit bare at the moment and trying to get the furniture we need.

I have been working very hard on the yard too. Holly, Corby, Bobby and Tango to ride every day at the moment. Duffy has had a little break so I can concentrate on Tango and I've also been given the opportunity to school a few more horses which has been great. I've been schooling Beau for a while now and am also schooling Pandora a sweet Welsh mare who is at the same stables.

Also helping bring on a lovely coloured mare, first sat on her on Tuesday and she was very good considering she has only recently been backed.

I'm taking Bobby and Tango to the Sevenoaks Riding Club ODE on Sunday which I'm looking forward too, I'll also be riding Beau there.

I had a great lesson with Sharon Hunt a few weeks ago, she was so friendly and helpful. Holly hasn't been on form recently we've had a few problems XC since moving up to Advanced. Hopefully with Sharon's advice we'll be back on track soon. Holly is such a lovely mare that I don't want to rush things so I'll bring her back down a level or two to get her confidence back up and go from there.

We were due to compete at my favourite event The Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe as we'd qualified for the Intermediate British Championships. Laurance kindly paid for this event and I was really looking forward to going. I withdrew Holly though as although disappointing it really is a championship standard course and as we're not quite on key at the moment I thought it best to get some confidence boosting rounds in first. Very well done to Sharon Hunt on her 2nd in the Novice Championships. My lesson was just before Gatcombe and I'd said to Sharon how much I love the event, I'm really pleased she is doing so well especially after the disappointment of the WEG selection. It is lovely at Bedgebury they've made some real improvements and I'm looking forward to going back.

As well as all the yard work and riding I did a bit of painting and decorating to earn some extra money to help with events and the mortgage (can't believe I've got a mortgage to pay now!) I'm also still working in the pub. Not quite sure how I got through those weeks first thing at the yard, decorating 8-12, then back up the yard to ride and some evenings working in the pub!

Lady's foal is doing really well and growing, she is very cheeky!

Must sit down and plan the next events. Hopefully maybe get a few more points to help towards the SEEL Rankings with Holly, before we know it it'll be November anyway and the ball! Not sure where this year has gone!

I'll plan to do another update next week after the Sevenoaks Riding Club ODE!

TTFN, Lisa