Affiliated Competition, Lanark.
Saturday October 16th 2004

We all loaded up into Wendy's lorry Friday morning with Herbie and Bowler and trundled back up the M6 for definitely the last competition of the year !! The Philips and Liz, Sarah and Emzie met us in Lanark and we settled the horses down in their stables for the night. Lanark keeps improving, the best bit being the DVD room where we relaxed watching "Signs" out of synch.( it was ok).

We had a good nights sleep, until Phillip woke everyone up that is! and got up early to plait Herbie and the Vaulters. The outdoor arena was flooded so we had little warm up space, Bowler went first so that was OK it just left Wendy being taken for a walk by Herbie!

B went well and looked good, especially his stars - by Clare - which everyone admired. Liz, Sarah and Emzie all went well, Lucy however had her blond head on, I need to remind her to do scissors next time! I think she only did it to see if the judges were awake.

Herbie managed to contain himself and although he watched everything but where he was going he went really well for Liz and Lucy and even better for Lucy, Sarah and Lissy. I was so proud of him. He has come such a long way in such a short time.

The Teams followed - 5 Advanced Teams! Lissa phoned me the day before and couldn't believe there were so many teams. We went fourth and Bowler was as good as gold, the Team looked smart and the compulsories were slick. Plenty to work on over the winter but I was pleased.

The afternoon bought the freestyles, Liz and Sarah went very well on B, Emzie has such lovely expression and went very well except for a slip at the end and she missed the dismount, Lucy decided to dismount early and finished her freestyle with 25 seconds left! That flu took it's toll I’m afraid.

Herbie's individuals all did really well, he got super horse marks especially with Sarah, Lucy and Lissy. I was so pleased. He never put a foot wrong; bless him.

The Team followed shortly after, I love the new run in music (thanks Bill), and they looked very smart. The freestyle didn't look as bad on video as I thought it did - I must have been watching four legs instead !!!! We have a lot of work to do over the winter but it was a very good run for our second competition as team. I think I’m looking forward to next year. Daniel Mackay was very complimentary about them, as were Jenny and Janet, hopefully we will grow.

Thanks to all of my vaulters for looking after the ponies for me, both were very tired and I thought Herbie was going to fall over on the way home! Thanks to Wendy for feeding all of us and driving, it was good to have her at a competition again. Thanks to Liz for her support and company, and to Bill and Liz for support and photos and video.

It was really good to catch up with everyone at the end of the year; all of the familiar faces - and the old ones back vaulting!
Thanks to Ann, Jo and team, especially Judy on the collecting ring doing a sterling job !!

See you all in 2005.