Pumbaa's Blog - Exams, BHN & Adopting Plan F
Well hello again ladies and gents, you may have feared that I’d fallen off the face of the planet but alas no…I simply fell into the black hole that is exams. Generally speaking I’m a pretty level-headed person, I suppose around horses you have to be, but add exams into the equation and hey presto, full basket-case status achieved.
I can now confirm that exams are over, black holes have been exited and sanity has been restored (well, most of it anyway) – so life can resume and the ponies are officially back in business. Well…that’s what I thought would be the case anyway.
Unfortunately a few weeks ago Sooty slipped over out hacking and bruised his shoulder. Since he is no longer (by any stretch of the imagination) a young man, recovery took a little more time then anticipated. That, coupled with the fact that out of nowhere he then managed to get puss in the foot just a few days before Bramham, meant we had to kiss that dream goodbye. Admittedly this has been one of those moments in life where a small existential crisis ensues (not that I’m a drama queen or anything) and you start to question the ‘whys’, the ‘hows’ and worst of all the ‘what ifs’ in life.
Quite how Bad Horse News (from now on referred to as BHN) has the power to bring out my inner philosopher I have no idea (in all honesty I had no idea I had an inner philosopher at all) – except I seem to moved away from the traditional ‘what is the meaning of life’ palaver (frankly it sounds a bit exhausting) and gone more in the direction of ‘what is the meaning of the lameness in this bloody animal’s near fore’…or along those lines anyway.
BUT, ever the optimist, I feel the universe was probably trying to tell us something and it just wasn’t meant to be. So now, having had to scrap Plans A through till E – looking at you too British Weather, that was a less than cool show you put on for 3 MONTHS – onwards we go to F in the hope that BHN won’t rear it’s ugly head again. Sooty is now back on track with his next aim being the CIC*** at Barbury, so all fingers, toes and various other limbs crossed that he happily stays in one piece! ‘Don’t hold your breath’ becomes all too literal when you have 5 weeks to wait…plus I’m not sure they do a foundation in ‘Deoxygenated Blue’, so I guess I’ll just have to keep myself together and my lungs functioning.
Not to be forgotten amidst the BHN chaos is the Princess herself, gorgeous Ellie. She was a real victim of the events we lost at the beginning of the season but where she has run she’s done me proud. At Chatsworth she did a lovely test, followed by 2 irritating poles show jumping and a FLYING clear cross-country. At home she has Beyoncé level sass, but take her to competition and suddenly she goes for more of an Adele sort of vibe…not that’s she’s trying to get over an ex (that would be weird), she’s just unbelievably mellow. Unfortunately dressage judges aren’t huge fans of ‘mellow’, I suppose it’s a bit too vanilla so we tend to find ourselves middle of the pack after tests. Equally, those coloured poles don’t care if a rub is ‘mellow’ or otherwise – they still come down. Needless to say none of this applies the XC; her thoroughbred blood really kicked in for the first time at Chatsworth and I was seriously impressed by her speed…if I wasn’t completely terrified by the prospect of 20 other horses chasing us around in a big circle I think Point To Pointing would have her name all over it!
Also ticking along is our next homebred in line: Mega. Another thoroughbred, another mare…if you think you’re sensing a theme here you’d be right. Mum has a real thing for thoroughbreds and serious aversion to Warmbloods. I know there are a lot of good blood horses out there now, but the main thing on Mum’s agenda is bravery – very little else will get you out of jail on a cross country course and after many years of hovering nervously in lorry park waiting for me to come back from my round, I suppose her priorities are pretty reasonable really. Mega definitely ticks the bravery box, as 5 year olds go she has to be one of the boldest I’ve sat on. I think she’s got a really exciting future ahead of her and I can’t wait to be a part of it!
For now, that’s all from me. For those of you out there to whom ‘BHN’ applies, my heart really does go out to you. There’s no denying that it absolutely sucks. No doubt 100 cliché, ‘helpful’ phrases have been thrown your way already – it seems though, that the more time I spend with horses, the more I enjoy the cliché…so I’m in no doubt that your silver lining will come, irrespective of the size of the cloud. After all ‘everything happens for a reason’…even though the likelihood of us working out said reason is exactly zero to none. So chin up all, and if that doesn’t work then bottoms up too!
Until next time,
Pumbaa x
