Bicton.
Sammi trekked down to Devon on Friday with just the one novice ride, Calcourt Verona (Ringo), which is pretty dedicated and since Ringo has about 10 novice starts under her belt with never a cross country fault it was looking like a relaxed sort of day. Indeed with a 23 on the flat it was getting quite exciting in Camp Birch but a rolled pole put paid to any winning rosette. They went cruising cross country and, as Sammi put it, she was half asleep when she misjudged a line to a double of hedges which were off set and when she woke up and pulled the left rein Ringo carried on cruising away to starboard which resulted in a 20. Not the worst thing to happen before your first intermediate run as wake up calls are always most useful at this point in time!
Sunday saw the grown ups day and Sammi had requested as early a start as possible with Finduss PFB (Louis) so as to avoid the excitement of the cross country running ruining his test. I am not sure that the 4am start warranted a score of 34 but on the plus side it was 2 marks better than Aston and they weren't last so I guess Louis is going to have to get used to getting up early. He did have a rail though so added 2 extra points onto his dressage and showjumping score compared to Aston so that sums up statistics really... never worth too much looking into! He had a fun time out on the track for a confident clear and settled down for a nap. The photo is of Louis but at Aston not Bicton!
The Kincooley Ceili (William) has been "fasting" ( he can blame Jonelle Price who passed on her secret to stunning weight loss after a baby to Sam for that!) and drew some admiring comments from passers by on his new slimline physique. He found it much easier to shimmer his moves in the dressage for a 27 as without dragging the extra 50kg around he can actually go forwards and sideways at the same time. William is a super jumper and he enjoyed his round in the all weather and simply zipped around the rolling hills of the cross country for a lovely quick clear which was good enough to claim third in his section.
Sammi then headed off to the sausage stand with a hungry child and husband in tow as well as a couple of dogs, Grace and Woofie, who have disgraceful manners when it comes to greeting boxer puppies at their crib. They behaved more like council house hooligans from a rough estate and I know for sure that Grace's background is far from that! Although I think Ed was secretly pleased as we have long suspected Grace of being a bit on the woossey side and he is not averse to falling out with people himself if he finds them not up to his standards of customer service.
As they drove out Ed was driving, Hels was riding shotgun and I assume Sammi was peacefully sleeping in the back. Situation normal and a fun weekend.. thanks to Bicton for putting on such a good show.