A family outing for the weekend which meant home in peace and quiet for Hels who opted to send Flo and Lilly and something tells me Hels must have looked at the forecast as the photos that came out of Burgham were festival type of mud photos!

Ed was in charge of Charlie which meant the first job after driving up there was to put some inappropriate photos of his first born on social media. Eventually it was agreed he could leave the ones on of Charlie looking like he may have rickets (pale doesn't come close!) but he would take down the naked one.

Sammi seemed to spend a long time up North with just the two horses and they did rather drag the phases out but then with 96 starters in one class they didn't really have any option! Finduss PFB (Louis) was first up and he did some super trot work and some nice canter work although the changes were, in Sammi's own words, "awful!". A mark of 40 still seemed pretty harsh though and it was agreed that Louis is generally on the right track and that one of the judges must have had a particularly disappointing chestnut at some point in their life.

And then it rained and rained and that is when the walkways became a mess! Four adults and one small child in the truck are not so much fun when that happens so it was great that Direct Tullyoran Cruise pulled out all the stops to slop through the mud and produce a 31 in her 4 star test.

By Sunday I imagine cabin fever was setting in although the weather had improved considerably. The showjumping track was big and the ground was tacky and not very nice which is totally reflected in the scoreboard with just 14 clears out of some 96 horses. Louis jumped a great round and was just caught out by an over that had a Liverpool underneath it.. not that that was problem but the take off point was sited right where the edge of the dressage arena had been so it made it look a bit odd. Tully was even better and was one of the few clear rounds so that made Sunday morning much more fun!

Sunday afternoon and finally out on the cross country. The going out on the grass actually held up very well and with a tough enough track to take on it was good to see. Louis was a bit off the pace starting on his 44 so he ran a nice educational round whilst Tully picked up just 10.8 time and slotted into the top 10 which was great.

Another couple of 4 stars under her belt and Sammi is slowly and steadily building a great partnership with these two smart horses. You can always forgive some dressage penalties when they go out and jump like that for you and despite the long drive home it was a happy truck that finally rocked into Little Park Farm.