Having vowed never to go to Badminton to watch on Saturday Sammi turned up with Ed and Lyndon in what can only be described as a strop. Roll on a few hours though and having decided to make the most of the Kiwi hospitality on offer it was actually hard for Ed to get her out of the tent! Sammi had kindly leant ( Lyndon's) little horsebox to the Kiwi catering team for the week so the VIP tickets were in return from that. We all know that Sammi isn't that fond of cooking but please pray to God she sticks to her day job as when I said I wanted the truck for the caterers she actually asked me if it needed to be washed out first.

Two advanced horses at Aston Le Walls on a rainy cool Wednesday and despite Finduss PFB ( Louis) being in the corner dressage arena with the distracting sounds of horses leaping into the water behind the hedge he actually behaved very well and knuckled down to work. Sammi said she basically schooled him and gave him no option but to listen to her, which he did, but no doubt the judge wrote "overbent" several times hence the score of 38!

After a classy clear over the poles Louis was actually relaxed enough to wander round the start box which is a first. Sammi had her first ever cross country lesson last week with Captain Mark Phillips which she described as an "epiphany" and as she set out on Louis for a nice quiet clear run she was slightly surprised to find she just had 2 time! Louis is a fast horse for sure and the course had enough to do to be a good prep for Rockingham in a couple of weeks and they finished the day soggy but happy.

Direct Tulloran Cruise ( Tully) didn't even practise his handstands in the dressage warm up so that is also a move forwards. A 33 and another super couple of jumping phases rounded off another good day for Sammi with her new horses. Aston had certainly beefed up the usual track and there were plenty of 20's across the intermediate sections but it was perfect for the advanced horses... an easy run for them with a few questions thrown in for good measure.