Aston is the supermarket shop of the eventing world. Its not exciting, its no sooner done than you seem to be heading back there again but you also know exactly what to expect when you get there. And one of the reasons that Aston run over 1000 horses an event at every event is that Nigel and Ann Taylor have competed at top level themselves and they know what riders want. Ground is an absolute priority, never more so that at this time of the year when we have had no rain for weeks and the good horses all have three day events coming up. Nigel had used his lake to water the ground and it was much appreciated!

Apart from that comment I don't have much to report. Its always pretty boring when Sammi is riding such good horses and these four are awesome. The Kincooley Ceili ( William ) cantered around his second intermediate with ease and his good test and double clear was a very nice way to start the day. Sammi then had Hunter Valley in the OI and he also posted a great test and a double clear which is really boring as usually you can rely on Gizmo to jazz things up a bit.

Sammi could have ridden all 4 of her horses on Wednesday but she had decided she was "too old" for that which is hilarious. To be fair I think it is more of a juggling act with Charlie and the nursery as there seems to be some sort of theory that its not cool not to see your child in the week at all. It didn't seem to bother the Victorians but in this age of political correctness one has to stay one step ahead of social services!

So the team cruised back on Thursday with another 2 horses. D had a particularly rude 8.12 dressage which must have meant a very early start and then he did liven things up a bit by having a rail which would have led to a lengthy investigation by Sammi as to how that could have possibly happened and how she could have ridden better when in fact all that did happen was at one fence he did not jump high enough. D then pinged clear cross country with yet another beautiful round.

The Court Jester showed off on the flat with a 22 test as he had been able to catch up on some sleep while D was doing his thing. He then added 4 in the showjumping as although that plan didn't come off last time and he still had to go fast he is wise enough to know that Sammi never ever goes fast twice in a row so there was no point over exerting himself. He was right and Sammi cantered round for 12 time which is like going backwards on a horse like Jester who can go 48 seconds inside the time at Withington!

And to complete the uneventful 2 days Hels didn't even post a photo of Jester's face! Although I was delighted to see when I checked her facebook page that she appears to have been torturing her working students with the electric fencing which I am dead impressed with! Go Hels!