April 2020

So we are still in Lock Down. But we have still managed to stay busy here at Team Spence.

We have been running “Lock Down Farm” Dressage competitions here at “Lock Farm” we are very lucky that I have a couple of liveries base here so our day to day life hasn’t changed too much. Emerald has her own horse Lady, Sue and Mimi have Hamish, and then myself and Sara have been riding all my horses.

My mum, Jo, is the dressage judge, with Emeralds mum as the writer, and Chloe or Toby have been camera man/ woman. It has worked really well, we are running it every fortnight and it has all made us keep up with our training. We put out the dressage boards and it certainly livens up the horses. The top horses started the first week with a 3* test and last time did a 4* tests. The younger horses have been at BE100 which they have done twice, and the aim is to do a Novice next time.

It has really kept spirits up within the yard and helped us all stay motivated. We have also been very lucky with the weather which puts a smile on everyone’s face!! We have also been doing weekly dinners as a team, the BBQ last week was certainly popular with the girls, it is understatedly hard for them not being able to leave the yard or see their families so has been great fun for us to have a weekly meal together and have it outside in the sunshine! My boyfriend, Toby has been a lot quieter with work so has had plenty of time to help with fence repairs and water tough repairs around the farm. He has also now set up GPS – Goss Property Services, to do some repairs and maintenance and has just bought a trailer and post banger to go on the back of the tractor which is very exciting.

All the horses are going to have a couple of weeks off each during May and this enables the horses to have a short summer break and also given us time to wash out the stables and paint them, we hvae started already and so far they all look really smart. Mum has also been busy cleaning and painting the walls in the tack room, the first time it has been done in years so looks amazing!!

I am very to have a course of SJ and XC fences out on the grass as well as the simulated XC fences which we have also got out in the field. It has enabled me to keep my training the same as I would without the lock down, so at least the horses aren’t missing anything other than the excitement of the competitions away from home!! I am also taking part in Virtual Eventing with Halltown Harley. It is going to be a great competition running over the same weekend as Badminton would have been, it will be very funny to see all the top riders running around – Make sure you all watch!!

But so far we are all staying very positive, I am hoping we get some positive news soon and some restrictions lifted this May and hopefully we will be able to get out and about soon!

Fingers crossed and roll on the start of our 2020 Event Season