Bonnie Fishburn – A new arrival!

Well August has been a month of firsts for me. The first thing which was a first for me is that I have let somebody else compete 2 of my horses. Hayley Mayer is a friend of mine who keeps her horse, Rua, with me. Rua is only a young horse and is currently having a holiday, so Hayley has been riding out with me on either Frankie or Percy and I suggested she may like to take them out to compete somewhere. Nobody else tends to even ride my horses and nobody else has ever competed them, so this was all very new to me. But I’ve actually really enjoyed watching Hayley have a play on them.

The first outing we had was to Betley Show with Frankie for the Open Working Hunter. I admit he isn’t the easiest of horses to ride because he gets rather excited for any outing. But Hayley stayed really calm with him and they produced a lovely clear round, followed by an impeccable show to take 2nd place. They then went in the Ridden Veterans, which clashed slightly with the Open Workers, so the judge was a little upset with us for being late. But Frankie and Hayley did the most beautiful and foot perfect individual show to actually be pulled in 4th in a strong class. Not bad considering the judge was a bit angry with us being late, albeit not our fault. So all in all a great day.

The second outing was to S&G Equine with Percy for the Novice 30. Considering Percy hadn’t done a dressage test since May he was actually quite chilled to be out in a venue he hasn’t competed at before. The test went very smoothly and he looked fantastic. There was just a tiny little blip where Hayley was enjoying her ride so much that she decided to add a little bit extra to her test and made a slight detour – hahaha. I think she was getting her own back on me for adding a circle in a test that I did on her horse back in the winter. They ended up on a 69.61% which was good enough for 4th place but in a very close section their error of the test cost them 2nd place. Still delighted with them both though.

And the second first for me this month was that I’ve just had a baby!!! Completely not expected this month as she wasn’t due until 23rd September but being a bit like her impatient mother, Harriet Rose Hollins arrived on 21st August weighing 5lb4oz. A slight shock to the system, as I’ve never had anything to do with 2 legged babies and my antenatal classes weren’t booked until mid-September. But I’m muddling my way through things with the help of my mum and husband. Hard to believe that only 5 days before the birth I was cantering Frankie round the stubble fields and 13 days after the birth I’m back on board. I’d planned to maybe stop riding come September but that all seems a little pointless now Harriet has arrived, so I may as well kick on again.

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