Well, just getting all excited for Sara's next big Event at Ashfields on 4th – 6th May,  but we were all on tenterhooks as to whether it would go ahead or not, you can imagine why !  RAIN, RAIN and more RAIN.  But thankfully as we got a few days closer to the off,  we had a few breaks and the weather turned,  ( a bit ) .

On the morning they were leaving I even got up early to go and wave them off and watch my pony Amble load up into the lorry. They were all very excited as this is the 1st party of the year.

What a sight when they got there,  mud,mud and more mud.   They had to have tractors  tow them into the huge field where all the lorries parked.   Even after a few hours of being there  it turned into a quagmire, what a massive job it must have been to get everything clean, but of course, with the fantastic work by Sarah, Mac and Carl,  they pulled it off.

Despite the mud and everything now being filthy by the time we got to the arena Sara had a brilliant dressage day and did the best dressage test of her class and a score of under 65. which is really important as this was a selection event  and with that score she won the Dressage phase.

I went up there on the Saturday to watch the Marathon day,  it was drizzling when I left  so I expected the worse,  but half way there the sun came out.  

This is a fantastic venue for spectators as you can see all but 2 of the 8 hazards up on a big raised hill.     The ground crew up there had done a brilliant job of trying to make the surface around all the hazards as non slip and safe as they could by laying down piles of woodchip etc  and it really seemed to help, - still a bit muddy though and when our ponies came round they seemed to make nothing of it,  they were absolutely brilliant.  Having said that when we listened to scores  it seems she won the marathon phase as well.  WOW.

I saw Carl walking down the road about an hour after they had finished and his jeans and boots were absolutely clogged in thick, wet mud,  it must have been so hard trying to clean up and get everything ready for the last phase of cones on the Sunday.

I went home Sat evening and then relied on Kazzy texting us to keep us posted of how she got on. Then the good news came through and she had won the Cones phase as well,  so was the overall Winner,  yeah !!

But it didn't end there, they then had the awesome task of clearing up and packing away everything for the journey home and were then told there was over 2 hours to wait until they were towed out of the mud slide of a field.  What a nightmare.  As you can imagine Sara was not amused but she did behave herself by sitting quietly in the lorry while Sarah Mac, Trisha and Carl tried to arrange to get them towed.

NEXT,  they then had a really quick turn around, they arrived home 5ish Sunday and then we unpacked.  It was left to all the girls this time as Carl had stayed behind at the show to drive Tractors to help get people out of the fields.  

Sara and all  then had a major cleaning session  as everything had to be ready then  reloaded on the Monday ready for the off again to THE ROYAL INTERNATIONAL SHOW AT WINDSOR.    Karen and I were there on the Tuesday morning as we had checked with Sara what time she might leave,  she thought about 10.00.  Well I got down there especially to see them load and go  and both Karen  and  I got there near enough the same time to find they had gone. Gutted.  Once Sara is ready she wont hang about so they left.  Luckily we had Debbie at the show for the whole week as she made it like a mini holiday and she kept us up to date with the results.

Obviously, leaving Tuesday Trisha had to still go to school until Friday but from Weds eve until Friday when she came out of school 3.30 she travelled up each day, Weds eve, stayed over, got up  5am  back to school Thurs , back Thurs eve  got up again 5 am Fri   back to school and then went back Fri afternoon,  Now that's  dedication.

On dressage day, as Trisha wasn't there,  Sarah Mac's mum Chris was asked to go on the Carriage and she couldn't believe it,  she has never done anything like this before and absolutely loved it.  It made her day that on the way to the dressage arena they passed the Duke and Chris very proudly gave him a Royal nod !

Chris  was also there with her hubby  Bob and they had taken their Caravan in order to feed them all, which they all agreed was superb, especially as they got a Roast dinner on the Sat evening.  Later on they both had to treat themselves to some new boots as being non-horsey people they didn't have have the appropriate footwear for all the mud !!.

It was so bad under foot for Karen who's in a wheelchair to get over to watch the dressage   they had arranged a lift for her from the lorry park to the show ground in the back of a trailer and she was travelling with Sheep, it was so bad and took a while to get through poor Karen got there after Sara had finished.

We were lucky as the morning was dry for our Dressage  but unfortunately it started to pour down by the afternoon for the Horse Teams.   It was so bad  that the very prestigious and posh Coaching classes were cancelled.

On Marathon day  we had found out later that the Queen had followed Sara on the course from Hazard 7 to  8 and she did it specifically to watch her.  Honoured or what !  She had a brilliant round and said the ponies were awesome.

Again, another bout of cleaning to get ready for the Cones on Sunday.  In previous competitions the cones have been  twisty turny sorts of courses which suit the ponies very well but here it was very open, long and much faster ,the ground a bit boggy and with the weather like its been for weeks before the show it was hard to get a lot of practise in.

Unfortunately, 3 balls dropped and a few time penalties but having said that Sara ended up 6th overall and she was the best placed British driver.