Well folks after my recent injury, it was doubtful if I was going be well enough to get to Gatcombe, but with the help of some nasty tasting stuff called "penny silin", I think that was what dad called it!

I had a bath and was plaited up he day before, and left not too early for the long (3 hour) drive. Needless to say dad had got the timin wrong so we arrived much earlier than we had too - at least he did't have to flap around.

I was left on the lorry with my hay, whilst dad and Kamilla left to walk the course.

When they got back Kamilla got me ready while dad changed, and we went to the dressage warm up.

Boy oh boy was it good to be out again, I was so excited, especially as I could see some of the cross country course (and here it!) that dad was a bit worn out by the time we got to go in. I'm afraid I wasn't very well behaved, I just wanted to get it over with so we could go and do the fun stuff. The only good thing about th novice tests is that you get to canter really fast a couple of times!!!!

We changed for the show jumping, which was running behind, so the warm up ring was very busy and filled with daft people who kept getting in my way, eventually we were called through to the holding area, where again I must confess I did show off a bit!!! When the lady said who's next Dad and I decided to jump forward (literally!). We jumped jumped the 13 fences without knocking any down, which pleased Dad.

So off to cross country, and having run late show jumping, we were able to go ahead of time. We popped over the practice jump a couple of times before we were called through. We set off fairly quickly, and had a really good round. There were 20 jumps, most of which I'd seen before, so no issues. Dad was a little loose, and we possibly scared the odd fence-judge but I've got used to Dads' style, it certainly doesn't bother him so hey (or is that hay!!).

We didn't get to meet the Princess because of the dressage but we both had fun. There are some pics which hopefully dad will post later. But I now have a couple of weekends off before going to Eland.