It does have to be said that Sammi is enjoying a rather nice early Autumn break in mid France at Lignieres with just Debonair ( D) and presumably a working student standing in for Hels as I can't see her embracing the " lets do it all myself" theory. To be fair, it's always a great opportunity for working students or 2nd in commands to go abroad and Sammi always endorses that. Ed is at home with Charlie ( and a full time job and a great nursery!) and Hels has the whole yard....and some of Charlie I think!

But things never quite go to plan and Sammi was snapped out of her holiday daydreaming about how to turn D into Valegro on the way to the cross country when D spooked at a wheelbarrow, stood up and then promptly fell over. Dear God. What a twat. Horses on average see wheel barrows on a daily basis so the wheel concept is not actually that strange. Wheelbarrows tend to either remove crap or bring food so either way they are a good thing for a horse. This only leaves me to assume that D is a particularly thick horse to find a barrow so scary and that would make me withdraw him fairly quickly from a task that required him to think fast on his feet, eg, CCI 2 star cross country.

But Sammi is made of sterner stuff and having picked herself up off the dirt, got back on and avoided all FEI officials ( not too hard at laid back Lignieres!) rocked up to the start. She then proceeded, in pure McLeod class, to skip around just 2 seconds over time and move up some 10 places. It was a tough enough track... there are several French 4 star horses right up the top of the leaderboard ( as they tend to do in France!) and Sammi said she was delighted with D and that he " had dug really deep for her today" which is great news.

Go Sammi. Enjoy your last night of 'no child sleep' and let s hope she has a great day tomorrow as the 3 days are stacking up now... Le Lion D'Angers beckons followed by Pau 4 star...