“Well if it’s not one thing it’s another …” – Email 10

Hello ,

Making the most of the summer Daisy and I had a successful* Fun Ride at Woolley Park on Sunday.

We just took things in our own time…

Sharron and I did a course on Equiculture on the Monday – we’ve definitely got things to take away from that. I'm going to approach them for a webinar. On Tuesday Daisy had a lesson on our former rehab, Hugo, at Wickstead Arena. There are areas to improve if we are going to get to Hickstead for September 7th for the Arena Eventing. Why we need to get there is a whole other story …

On the Saturday before we had a super afternoon party at IH HQ for my sister, Sandra’s, birthday and her old work friends came from London and various places as she’s retiring from corporate life. The reason being is she’s very recently been diagnosed with Bloody Cancer. I’m not normally a sweary person but honestly all this time she’s never smoked, always eaten healthily and done her 10,000 steps a day. It’s just Not On quite frankly.

Sister in Pink. Pie dozing

I’m quite sure there are a good number of you reading this who have been through it or you or friends or family members are going through it, and I want to send you love and hugs* because it can be such a shock, and if any of you want to send me your most helpful coping mechanisms feel free. Also, to say the MacMillan nurses are amazing, and people … people can be so kind.

You may not know my sister, but she’s definitely been the ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’ for me and the whole family really. When I was winning the Best Turned Out on Seamus when I was 11, it was my sister who washed him (twice) with Bloom shampoo, and we used "Bag of Blue" to get his tail perfectly white. My task was to sit on and keep absolutely clean.

When I was winning showjumping at Hickstead it was because my sister, who became only the second female in the country to get her HGV licence, used to drive us in a lorry pulling a caravan behind. Those were great days. She’s always looked much younger than she is, and people used to be startled by apparently a teenage girl driving this huge vehicle. And then of course she’s driven the lorry and guided Daisy ever since then, and they’ve had a lot of fun together.

And circling back (corporate speak) to Hugo going to Hickstead in September. My sister doesn’t want to go to Bali or Skydive or drive a Ferrari – she’s always loved us competing at Hickstead, and she wants to watch Daisy and Hugo compete at Hickstead, and September is the date.

He can definitely jump!

He's perfectly capable of jumping round an 80 cm course now (see headless rider pic – he can jump) but we'd like him and Daisy to do it as nicely as they possibly can and not suddenly be surprised by a ditch or water which he's done in a couple of other places, but he's never done it THERE. You might know how that can go, and we go over it on the Horse Psychology course – horses have to generalise their learning and so we need to go to plenty of different places, until all the strange obstacles become run of the mill.

So please excuse me if I’m slow re. emails or whatever as life admin with hospital trips take ever more time. My sister will be coming to live here soon, and we’ll probably watch the video of Pie and Daisy winning the Desert Orchid Championships a LOT. What an amazing joy that Pie has been (still is) in our lives. Hugo has big shoes to fill.

I’m not sure I meant to write about that, but I have now so there you go. I hope you’re all keeping well.

Lots of Love

Kelly xxx

*’Successful Fun Ride’. I struggled to find the right adjective for this. We’d planned to do the short ride but missed the turning and the ground was super slippy in places and there were bouts of heavy rain and some people were getting stuck in the lorry park but I held the horses and Daisy managed to drive the lorry out and we loaded on the road outside. It was a mini adventure and Pie and Hugo were generally well behaved. So yes, successful.

*Hugs – always get permission from people with Cancer in case of PICC lines and various

.And don't miss out on the prizes and webinars coming up!