|
| Please sign our Guestbook | Back |
We arrived at Monnington on Thursday evening and settled all the horse into their stables (Aspire,Fly, Harmony, Marty and Precious). Then it was time to put the caravan awning up. It's a good job that girl-guide Barb was on hand or it would have been a very long night! Quite a few people had already arrived so we decided we would all have chinese, which we ate in the butt-house. It was like feeding the 5000 but it was very nice and gave us all chance to catch up.
Bonnie and Wendy Sogoloff, our trainers for the weekend still hadn't arrived from America as there had been problems with weather and planes, so they were only due to arrive on Saturday. A big thank you to Lionel, Trudy and Georgia for stepping in, who gave good informative lessons.
The weather was glorious all weekend, it felt like the middle of summer - it was lovely sitting watching the lessons with just t-shirts on. We were treated to a great lunch by Cassie's parents, in fact we were spoilt all weekend - thank you!
Lessons continued and then it was time to get everything prepared for the Show Horse parade. As usual, this was a magical evening - the indoor school decorated and the horses turned out to their best, trotting in the spotlight and then their coolers whipped off during a small commentary about each horse. We had a celebrity watching - Lorraine Chase ('Steph' Stokes in Emmerdale), who was in awe of these magnificent horses and had never seen anything like it before. After about 15 horses had been paraded, everyone mingled with a glass of champagne, chocolate fountain and nibbles.
Lorraine stayed the whole weekend and had riding lessons, which she obviously enjoyed immensely. Bonnie and Wendy finally turned up just before lunch and gave a few lessons before we ate. After lunch they gave a talk on 'Foal to Five years' - this was very informative with handouts so you could read more in-depth. For those that didn't have lessons in the afternoon there was a treasure hunt. There were 2 teams of walkers and 2 teams of riders. Liam's team won the walkers and Tim's team won the riders (they didn't go all the way to Byford this time) In the early evening Bonnie and Werdy gave a talk with live demonstration on Equine massage therapy. We had the traditional South African Barbecue later that evening - thank you to Lionel and the grooms, it was delicious. Lionel also treated Kelly and Lucy to a nighttime swim in the lake.
Lessons continued and then at lunch it was time for the Easter Parade. Chris Chittell, who plays Eric Pollard in Emmerdale joined Lorraine and the rest of us for the parade. People decorated their horses and themselves and off we went down the walk on any amenable transport - there were people driving their horses, riding, walking and even a quad bike which we had decorated. On the Easter Parade, there was the annual trotting race. Everyone else not taking part go up the walk first where you are met with hot-cross buns and mulled cider. When you look back down the walk, you see the group of horses fast approaching. I was quite shocked to see Music Man (Harmony) in the lead with a very delighted Aga on top. After the parade, Bonnie gave a talk on the changing trends of the saddle horse in America.
It was then time for Angela to judge the best Easter bonnets. The winners were Barb, Lisa and Tom driving Lanner. Myself and Gina were runners up as bunny girls.
Later Sunday afternoon, Amy Harris gave a speech on show attire. This was one of many things she had to do towards winning the Scholarship (trip to America). Amy did very well and was very knowledgeable on her chosen subject and answered all the questions put to her in good detail.
On Sunday evening, 37 of us when to the Boat pub for a meal. As usual it was a lovely meal and we all came away feeling extremely full (as you just can't say no to the chips!).
Clare Northcott