It's also been Easter and I took a couple of days off work to top up the bank holidays and make it a nice 6 days off!
In that time I've spent a lot of time with Fred and Georgie etc and we've even done some of Fred's 'firsts' as well as spend some time away from the horses, which was nice too!
On Wednesday Georgie, Frankie, Fenella and I went to the Cambridge University Botanical Gardens and had the best time! It was lovely to see so many beautiful plants and tree and have a horse-less day!
On Thursday we decided rather than going to the beach it would be nice to still go somewhere sandy and we decided to take the horses to Little Lodge in Santon Downham, we've been going here since we were children and always had a lovely time, so we felt it an ideal place for Fred's very first outing.
We borrowed a trailer from a friend and also got Millie and got our entire gang together and along with Mum and Dad we took all of them to the sandy forest! We had the absolute best day!
Fred really loved it, as we've had so little rain the ground has been really hard so we've been limited on what we could do but as it's so sandy at Santon Downham the ground was absolutely perfect. As I am still building my confidence riding in open spaces after my fall off Fred, Georgie kindly offered to ride him and I rode old faithful Beanie! We took the two big boys off quietly before the kids met up with us later so Fred could take it everything and not stress.
He was such a good boy, he walked and trotted over a pole on the floor with no problem, and with a lead from B he also got confident enough to even pop over a couple of small cross country fences! I was so shocked at how well he coped and seemed to really thrive and gain confidence with every new thing we did!
I was however a little too relaxed on B and when he spooked I plopped off the side of his bottom when I was on the phone to Dad, so arm is suitable shades of green and yellow and covered in a giant graze, silly me aye!
Not that that stopped me, I got back on and we had a lovely canter in the grass over to meet the girls on their ponies and go to the river to have a splash! Water baby B was straight in, no hesitation and was love being hock deep in the cold water having a wail of a time!
Fred also walked in, more cautiously obviously, and without intervention would have walked right in to the middle of the deep river! Seems he's not afraid of getting wet!
Afterwards we then took Frankie off so she could have a little jump and a canter on Ronnie while the boys joined her, the 3 stoogies had a great time! After being out for ages we came back and had a lovely picnic and I think Fred was happy to be finished for the day, he'd done a lot and was quite tried it would seem!
Then on Sunday we decided that we'd take Fred to a show happening not far from us and take Fred to do the in-hand class for the RoR. I was really unsure how he'd cope but wanted to see. We plaited him up the night before and he stood beautifully falling asleep while I plaited and being spruced. We were the first at the show on Sunday and he coped ok, but when other lorries arrived we do think he thought he was racing again, especially we he was being walked in hand! Parade ring anyone!
We calmed though and we were able to go into our first class, the Best Turned Out, so he could gaine some experience in the ring before our main class. He walked well but did fidget and not stand so well but we manage a 5th so I was happy with that.
Our next class was the in hand RoR class and Fred was fine to keep walking but any stopping meant him being a fidget arse. Which is fine, he's never been asked to stand for long periods before so I expected as much. I obviously knew I wasn't going to win or be placed so I just let him stand in the shade and eat grass until the class was done. I wanted him to have a next experience which I think he did. He calmed enough to cope and learn that going out in the trailer from home is a nice fun experience and that it won't mean going racing any more.
Obviously, as predicted we didn't win but I am happy with how he coped and I've since entered for another show in about 3 weekends time, while Georgie wants to take him to one over the May bank holiday weekend and she ride him so I am happy for that to happen too.
We still have a lot to work on at home and every day I am working on him and getting racing out of his brain!
Pretty good for 9 weeks with us hey!
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