Today was the dressage test at Solihull Riding Club. We took Apollo and Maisey as many people are at school and others were short of money.  The ponies warmed up well and it was nice to be inside out of the rain as the weather outside was terrible. Maisey was calm in her test and although she wasnt on the bit all the time she did well for her first test with Jasmine and got 58% and some good comments. Apollo despite warming up well was far too excited in the main arena and wanted to leave as soon as he got in. He got 54% which is his worst score yet but on the plus side he did get some sevens on his test sheet he just was let down again by his walk on a free rein and his submissiveness! The ponies were generally well behaved and Apollo boxed well to the event despite the fact he has never met Maisey before.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

This morning as we got to the solihull field we discovered that the horses had broken the wooden gate and lifted it off its hinges. The  gate was lying flat on the floor so bertie, who couldn't get past it was left in the field calling. Apollo and mo had vanished. We rand 999 to notify the police as the field was very close to the centre of solihull and the M42 motorway and the loose horses could have caused an accident. The police rang back five minutes later to tell us the horses had been found at 5am and someone had but them in a field down the road. We went to collect the horses and they were glad to see us and pleased to get back in their own field. Tony kindly fixed the gate so they will be unable to break it again.

The loans this week have gone very well. Buster particularly has settled down a lot and is feeling much happier in his new home. Today Apollo, Mo and Indy went up to Solihull club with George and Nina. They hired the indoor school and used it to practice jumping. The jumps were very small as Indy and Mo are just working on gaining confidence at jumping and Apollo is trying to learn to calm down over jumping as he gets very excited.  All in all it went very well and then Jemma left to hack into Alvechurch with Buster as he is practicing going out on his own. Well done to all who loaned this week!!

Today was the tuesday evening clear round showjumping. Unfortunately there was not time to ride Buster today but Indy and Apollo were worked at Solihull.  In the afternoon the horses tails were washed as well as their legs and we took Ted, Bobby, Bess And Merlin to the jumping. Bess was much more confident about traveling as she loaded straight away and had not sweated up when she got there. Ted and Lauren jumped well and although they did not jump clear they were much better than last time as this is now Ted's second time at a show so he understood what to expect. Bess was a little excited as she had been jmping much bigger last time she was in the ring so jade found it hard to steady her and to turn so although she jumped clear she turned over her own track so she did not get a rosette. Lauren also rode Bobby who was much improved on last time as he did not throw her off and he completed his round confidently. Jemma and Merlin jumped clear over the  1'6''  so did the next round which was 2' and that was almost clear but with one run out. As the people handing out rosettes were not concenrating Jemma got the rosette anyway as they gave it to her before she had chance to say that she hadn't jumped clear. All in all the horses did very well and Kezzia also rode Merlin over the practise fences as well as Jasmine warming up Ted and Alice warming up Bess. Nina also rode Bobby as he managed to unseat Lauren when practising the higher fences but Nina also came off as she is rather tall for Bobby so finds it hard to stay on when he refused and then did a cat leap. It was a very funny looking leap that he did so it mostly made people laugh and no one was hurt. The horses traveled back safely and were happy to come home to their stables although none of them had got very sweaty as they had only been worked steadily. Well done all and many thanks to Ros for driving.

At ten o'clock we had a visit from an ecologist who was looking to approve the work that is about to start on the stables. She has now approved the work and so we can go ahead with the concrete base for the first lot of stables. Hopefully the work will start very soon as we have encountered a lot of problems in trying to get these new stables put in. In the afternoon Ros took everyone to Solihull as Jasmine and Nina were part loaning Indy and Amelia and Alice were part loaning Apollo. Nina had her day off today but the other three rode and the tackroom had a tidy up. Apollo and Indy are quite new to Alice and Jasmine so this was an interesting challenge. Later Jemma took Buster for another schooling session on the menage. This time he was much more settled as he understood what was expected and he was more familiar with his surroundings. He worked well and Jemma was very pleased with him. Well done all!

As it was still wet on the field all the horses had to be ridden out on Sunday. Nina and George rode out early from the Solihull field on Indy and Apollo. They rode up to the club but the grounds were closed and the members field was very wet and boggy so they went down Conker lane and into Knowle village. The horse were both very good but Mona was upset at being left behind and han managed to escape from her paddock and had been galloping round the whole field as she had left lots of hoof marks in the grass. She was settled and grazing when the other horses got back so they were left together in her paddock and after a quick canter round they settled to graze. At the home field Jemma, jade, Alice, Lauren, Kezzia and Jasmine rode out on Merlin, bess, Belle , Ted, Bobby and Maisey. They went on a long ride out and ended up at the back of Swanshurst Park. There they praciced jumping ditches. Some of the horses were quite confident at this but Maisey and Merlin were just led over as they seemed unsure. All went well and the horses enjoyed the work as the field has been very wet so they have not had much turnout.