Fence Judging

Yesterday was totally exhausting, but a lot of fun. We turned the horses out and mucked out, grabbed Son 2, threw some clothes on him, then all jumped into the car (including 'Er Indoors) and whizzed up to Worksop.
We were actually due to fence judge for the Hunter Trials at our old livery yard, Holme House Farm. Usually they have a show cross, a competition where each rider does a round of showjumps then goes straight out onto the cross country course. Today was their first ever hunter trials, which is just the cross country phase. It looked absolutely beautiful spread out below us, and for the second time this year, I wish I'd bought Barnaby!
Mr O is the main judge and he co-ordinates everything. We can see loads of the fences spread out below us, but then the horses go into a field to our left and jump five fences in there, before coming back out, whizzing along in front of us, and then finishing by going back up the hill to our right, to the finish. If anything happens in the far field, the judge in there radios the information through to us, so we can make a note of it on the score sheet. We've had two girls, Jenna and Lindsey, who've helped us this year, and they've been really good at it. This means Mr O and I can work with one girl each as a 'writer,' so we watch the horse and call out comments to them, like, "Refusal at fence three - ten penalties,' and so on, and they write everything down and add it up at the end. It saves so much work for us, because it is actually quite hard to watch and write at the same time.
It turned out to be absolutely freezing, so after the Novice class, we all sat in the car, which was so much warmer. Even 'Er Indoors decided that being outside was above and beyond the call of duty and climbed in with us. Next year I am going to get her a little hi-viz vest with 'Steward' on it.

The first class is Novice Pairs, with fences at 2' 3" followed by Novice Individual, which looks like this:





This is followed by Intermediate Pairs (2' 9" I think). You have to have your wits about you for this one, as competitors can jump either the Intermediate fences or the Open fences.






Then comes the Intermediate individual class, followed by the Open. The other problem was that these two classes had a set of extra fences in a far field on the right. We got there too late to go and walk the course through there, and couldn't understand why competitors were taking so long to go round and come back through the water jump. Jenna and Lindsey told us there was a ditch in there, that might cause people some problems. At the very end of the competition we finally got a chance to run down and have a look, and I could instantly see what she meant.
The ditch looked like this.




I know it might look easy, but when I first saw it, my stomach lurched, as it's the most cavernous leap, and it made me think people were jumping right across the top of it, but as you can see from the photo, competitors were making their horses go down the bank, then leaping across the ditch, which has a little river in the bottom. Piece of cake!
Of course, now Mr O has seen this, he can't wait to have a go, so we are going to pop along in a few weeks time and have a run round, then go for a hack. I am looking forward to it myself, really, it's the second time I've looked at the fences this year and fancied having a go. I trust Barnaby enough now not to mess me around, and have jumped most of these fences on Max in the past, and sneaked round a few on Barnaby, come to that! Watch this space.

Busy Days

Missis and I had a fabulous time yesterday on what turned out to be a two hour hack. I went out to catch Barnaby, and to say he ran away is an understatement! He actually ran round the field, bucking and broncing, then got down for a roll. Finally he ground to a halt and let me put the headcollar and leadrope on, but then proceeded to trot down the field, with me holding on for dear life. The thought that I was about to ride this exuberant beastie was not exactly thrilling.
But on the ride, he was absolutely beautiful. We went for miles round the back of the village, with loads of off-road riding. There is one section where you climb higher and higher and can see right across the entire valley. To say it is breathtaking is an understatement, if you're scared of heights like me, it's probably best not to look. Barnaby said, "For goodness sake mother, what are you doing?" I said, "I'm averting my eyes, Barnaby, " He muttered something that sounded like 'buffoon,' but I'm not entirely sure.
We carried on up the road, where there was a horse ahead of us. I called out to the rider to ask if it was okay to overtake and she said yes, but the horse (who turned out to have blinkers on) turned round to have a good look at us. It was a bit peculiar really.
We must have done nearly ten miles, with a lot of it being very hilly. I couldn't believe how much energy he had on the way home. I do think it's because he's so much cooler now that he's clipped. He certainly is a fit boy.
I have bought a sack of feed for him, but to be honest, I don't think he needs it yet. He's just been having a few handfuls of chop at night, and as of tomorrow he'll have a breakfast, but I'm going to wait as long as I can before I start giving him a grain feed. It'll be interesting to see how little he actually needs.
Mr O came home from work, and had my wonderful, wonderful son in the car with him. He has been off on his adventures but finally decided he'd rather be at home. It's lovely to see him. I miss his sense of humour. He is nineteen going on fifty, and staying with us until Sunday morning. He refused to have his picture taken for this blog (I can't think why!)
And so to today, where we have made the decision to bring the horses in at night as of tonight. Ironically tonight is warmer than it's been all week. Normally they don't come in until the end of the month.
It hadn't escaped our notice that we have only three bales of straw left, so Pongo and Mr O were dispatched to a local farm with both horse boxes, to cram in as many bales of straw as they could muster. Son 2 went too, for moral support, and to give him an opportunity to show us how strong he keeps telling us he is. Actually when they got back he threw fifty bales up to the hayloft, so I must stop being a sceptical mummy and take him at his word.
While they were out I fully mucked out Zak and Barnaby's stables and gave them a good clean. I had to find haynets and stable rugs and make up a tea and a breakfast for them both. Missis spent a good deal of time clipping Hugo and Lindy. She's never clipped a horse before, and found it a traumatic experience. Mr O and I kept popping in to tidy things up for her, but actually she made quite a good job of it for her first attempt. They'll both be a lot cooler anyway. I clipped Lindy last year, but it's good to know that Hugo is also well behaved when clipping. Being thrown about by a stroppy half tonne horse is not my idea of a good time.
And so, if I tiptoe through the garage and turn right, my horse is breathing his steamy breath into the dark. He is knee deep in straw, has hay and water, and his best friend nearby. What more could a chap ask for? And I can sneak out in my pyjamas, stroke his neck, breath in his warm scent and kiss him everso gently on his velvety nose. There is something wonderful about this time of year, despite the hard work, that I wouldn't trade for anything. Goodnight my darling boy, sleep well.

Website Of The Week

Hello all.
As planned, I thought each week on a Friday I'd showcase a website that I've found really useful in my card making explorations. They're not in any order of preference, just websites that stand out.
So the first one is Card Making Magic. com run by a woman called Christina. She puts on tutorials that are really easy to follow. Because of this website I've successfully made tri-fold cards and off-set gatefold cards because the instructions were really clear. Her video tutorials are really good, too, with an excellent one on making paper bows, which now adorn loads of my cards and one on making acetate flowers, which look fantastic. I'll be dipping into this website regularly from now on. It's certainly earned its spot on my favourites bar. Hop on over when you get a moment, but put the kettle on first, I guarantee you'll be there a while.
Anyway, I haven't been idle this week, and have a few cards to show you.


This is one of the Christmas fairy stamps. I've decided once she stops involving herself in festive activities, she's actually quite nice. There is a story behind these backing papers. I saw them featured in a magazine article and thought they were lovely, so I ordered them from someone on ebay. When they came, I flicked through them and found that not one of them even faintly resembles those used in the magazine article. I was so cross, I felt like ringing the magazine up and asking them what papers they used, as they certainly weren't the Basic Grey Lemonade pack, as stated. Never mind, I am using them here and there, so I suppose it doesn't matter, but I wasn't very impressed at the time, as you can imagine.

This card was made using the Owlgate stamp again, which is very sweet. It occurred to me yesterday that I could print out the name of our farm in small print and put it like a sign on the gate, which I think would look quite cute.

I've put glitter round the owls hats, and what you probably can't tell is that they're looking at each other as if they're thoroughly embarrassed about having to wear silly hats.

I don't know what these backing papers are called, as I bought them last year, when I didn't have a clue what I was doing, and I've lost the cover. What I do know is that they're very frustrating to work with and I'll be glad when they're all gone. I've learned a lot about backing papers recently. I've learned that they should be exactly that, 'backing papers,' items in the background that say, "Hello," not "HELLO!" A lot of papers I've come across this year are far too loud and don't sit back where they belong. Behave yourselves, please, backing papers!

Anyway, I'm off to brace myself against the cold, and go and ride The Boy. He'll be thrilled, I'm sure.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

Mrs O.

Marley and Me

Some of you may know we regularly use a local tack shop called Stablemates. It's gone up even further in my estimation recently because they clean rugs and sharpen clipper blades at very reasonable prices.

But there is another reason I've started finding any excuse to go there every week. I am becoming deeply besotted by this little girl:

As you can see, she's a tiny Jack Russell. She is the sweetest thing I've seen in some years, and I have to give her a cuddle every time we go in there. I could quite easily tuck her inside my jacket and walk off with her! We actually had 'Er Indoors with us when we took these photos, and Marley was desperate to get down and play with her, which resulted in some very blurred photos.

She is like a little piglet when you pick her up, and to be honest, she doesn't seem to be getting much bigger. She must be about four months old now. She doesn't fit my criteria as I really want a black and white boy dog, but I wouldn't care. If I could have her I'd be happy.

Even Mr O is becoming highly persuadable, so you never know. Of course, I'd never trade in 'Er Indoors for a younger model. Although lately she is also known as 'she who carries a little extra weight', or indeed 'Dora the Snorer.' It's incredibly difficult to get out of bed in the mornings with a huge inert lump snoring her head off on the bed.

The last two days have been suddenly and unexpectedly freezing, so now I am worried about the horses being too cold at night. The earliest we can get some straw is Saturday, but I think by then they will definitely need to come in. I know it means extra work, but I'd rather know they're warm. They're coming in for tea at night, but aren't keen to go back out afterwards, so we'll see.

Autumn Card

I decided to take a well-earned break from making Christmas cards and do something a little more appropriate to the season, before it finishes and I've missed it completely. For the first time in ages I was wide awake at night, with ideas flowing through my head. And in the morning, this is what I made:

I've decided to make something like this once a month. This is partly inspired by Floss's Blog where she uses a colour scheme from a particular calendar as inspiration for a display that changes each month, and partly by Margaret's blog where she makes beautiful little inspirational placards that I really like.

I wanted to reflect what autumn, by far my favourite season, means to me, so there are many elements to this card. It actually has a 'bottom' so you can stand it up, but I've put string at the top so I can hang it up. It's actually hanging at my kitchen window and I've used the window sill to display a few more autumnal items. I don't object to doing the washing up, but it's definitely enhanced by having a few pretty things to look at while I work.

The basic design for this card can be found here but I am going to be featuring the whole website in a new little series I'm going to be doing on Fridays, as I am finding some fabulous websites useful for card makers, which I think I ought to share.

You can tell it's autumn because:

1. I have finally put all my T shirts away and got all my jumpers and polonecks out. It's like greeting old friends.

2. It gets too dark at night for Mr O to be able to ride after work during the week. To say he is depressed about this is an understatement.

3. My garden is full of leaves, which I will now go and sweep up.

4. The cats start treating the house like a hotel again. Honestly, if you miss having teenagers at home, just get a couple of cats. We've been like ships that pass in the night all summer, but the moment the temperature drops below ten degrees, I get two little waifs sitting shivering on my doorstep, telling me how much they've missed me.

5. There is a dramatic increase in the consumption of hot chocolate (which will be discussed in a later post) custard and pies. Mostly pies.

Never mind, only 67 days until Christmas!

Mrs O.

Pleasure Ride - Osberton

I'd been thinking for ages that for this 14 mile pleasure ride, it might be an idea to push the boat out a bit and wear our tweed jackets, and generally be as smart as we could.
And so we duly donned white shirt, tie, waistcoat and immaculate beige jods, plus, key item, a thermal vest, as once we'd been outside for a few minutes, we realised it was absolutely freezing!
Barnaby, as you know, has been clipped. Although it looked very good when I'd finished, it turned out I'd set the numnah too far back on him, so when I put a saddle cloth and saddle on him, you could see the long haired bit sticking out the back, so I decided it had to go, and clipped it all off on Saturday evening. Obviously it didn't have to be immaculate as it would be mostly under the saddle anyway, and as it just makes a soaking wet patch when he's worked, I decided it was a bit of a waste of time.
As it turned out, by the time we got there, it was glorious sunshine, and the thermals turned out to be a little excessive. We were sweltering within minutes. We had taken another (essential) precaution, though - we'd both filled our hip flasks with port. What an inspiration that turned out to be. We had quite a few pleasant pit-stops as a result, I can tell you!
It was beautiful to canter and trot round this fabulous landscape. No matter what season you go in, it's always slightly breathtaking, and the ground is always good.
I'd taken the decision to put Barnaby in a double bridle, for more control, which turned out to be a very good idea. I wouldn't have had brakes otherwise. I think because he's clipped, he's lovely and cool, which gives him loads of energy. Plus they know Osberton is a fast ride, and it's their cue to go like the clappers (so they do!) Mr O jumped a couple of decent sized logs, too, but I decided we'd keep our feet very firmly on the ground today.
Not far into the ride we bumped into my old friend Denny Bailey. I haven't seen her since she moved to the yard there. Suddenly I was glad I was smartly dressed, and very proud to be seen on Barnaby. She said she's really happy on the new yard, which is good, I guess.
Once we got back, we picked up our photos from the previous ride. We'd ordered an extra large close-up portrait of Zak looking quite stunning. It's an A3 size, so it's the same size as the one we have of Barnaby, so now we can have the two pictures side by side. Poor old Maurice Tilford has been photographing us for years. We've arranged for him to come to us after Christmas and take some photos of the horses galloping about in the field. He'd brought some examples along and they were absolutely stunning, so I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do with ours.
We fence judged last week at Lorna's, for the show cross, and were presented with a rug each as a thankyou present. They are travel rugs, and both horses wore them today. They are absolutely fabulous, and when the horses arrived they were bone dry. Barnaby's is navy blue, and Zak's is dark green, with sheepskin round the neck. I will have to take a photo of him, because he looks like Santa's Little Helper in it. I am so glad i clipped Barnaby, as he was dry after the ride within 15 minutes. A hunter clip may be the way to go in future.
Barnaby was as naughty as possible when I tried to load him. It took five attempts, but we got there in the end. You'd think they'd be only too keen to come home, wouldn't you?
And once we did get home they were rugged up and turned out for a good roll and a drink, then off to tell the others what they'd been up to.
All in all, a beautiful day. I look forward to seeing the photos...

Transformation

It's been a busy week here. Mr O has been helping Pongo lay hardcore between the two barns. This is our route from the stables to the field. During the summer it's rock hard and dry but you only need a drop of rain and it turns to thick mud over night - not funny when you're trying to lead horses along it, trying to stay upright and not get splashed by the horse's hooves.
The first job, though, was to move the muck heap, which took nearly two days, loading everything into a trailer and dropping it off at a local farm. The space looks huge without it. There is usually a burning pile next to the muck heap, which has also been shifted. The new muck heap will be at the back of the barn, so not visible to the road and not the first thing that visitors see.
So now the area looks like this:


Pongo has been shovelling loads of hardcore with the JCB and Mr O has been flattening it with the roller. Today they've been putting on road planings, and it looks fantastic. The chickens are totally confused though, because there isn't a blade of grass to be seen in their usual landscape. They look a bit as if they've landed on the moon. We need to open the brown door onto the field and let them go out that way to find the new muck heap, silly things.
There's no danger of chickens taking over the world, though, is there? George gets amorous with Betty, so she runs behind him and he can't find her. He looks to right and left - no chicken. He looks momentarily baffled, but shrugs his shoulders and carries on with his day, bless him. I wink at Betty, and she nods at me, and all is well with the world.
I just thought I'd show you this:

This is Purdy, snuggling up in Zak's travel boots (which shouldn't be there, obviously). Does this make her Puss in Boots? Oh well, worth a try.
I've made a couple of cards.

You wouldn't believe the problems I had making what looks like such a simple card. I know I'm slightly under the weather but I shouldn't be let loose with crafting items when I'm feeling a bit non compos mentis. Even though I had instructions to follow I couldn't think which way to fold the card, then measured it wrong so I hadn't folded it back far enough, which is why the little blue border is on the left hand side, but actually it worked out really well in the end. And after all that I was flicking through a catalogue and found some ready-folded cards for sale - D'oh!
My stamps finally came from Little Claire's Designs. I rushed to my desk and instantly began stamping. All of the kit to make this card is provided, plus a gallery with instructions to make a few others. I'm sure you can see the owls on the top of the gate, but near the bottom on the right, is a little family of mice. It's very cute. It comes with the stamp saying, "Happy Christmas from all of us." It's making me desperate for a Sizzix machine, which I can't have until Christmas, because I'm desperate to make some more circles.


The best thing about this was that I had all the Promarkers I needed ready and waiting for me to spring into action, which was wonderful.
I'm also not going to do this next year, though (making Christmas cards so early, I mean). I'm going to make a couple of Christmas cards every week, and not make any to sell, they'll just be for family and friends, but equipped with my Sizzix and an embossing gun, there'll be no stopping me. I feel as if I've missed the opportunity to make some autumn cards, which is my favourite season. I think I'll rectify the situation this week, if I get time.
I've also obviously realised that I am coming up to my first anniversary of blogging, plus I was waiting to see when I'd get to 50 followers (and now I'm on 52!) I'm also getting close to my 200th post, so I'll put them all together and organise a giveaway some time soon, to celebrate, so watch this space.