Bonnie Fishburn – A rollercoaster season

So that’s it, 2016 is over. It was a rollercoaster of a session as always but generally a good one. December was certainly my quietest month with only two horses left in work and that was only ticking them over, so they only got worked 3 or 4 times a week. They were all still out at night, apart from one night when it was torrential weather. December has been fairly kind to us weather wise.

We only had a few outing through the month. The first being a completely and utterly fab fun day at S and G Equine aka Weaver Equestrian with the newly formed Dodcott Divas Dressage Team of Nikee Hudson, Kirsty Walton, Hayley Mayer and I. We had so many giggles. I rode Elfie in the Prelim 7 and he was a little star as usual for a whopping 74.54%, hard to believe a year ago I was only just about to sit on him. He finished in 3rd spot. Nikee and Kirsty both won their classes and Hayley was 2nd. So out of 22 teams we finished 2nd. With all of us getting over 70%. Great achievement especially with 2 X 4 year olds and a 5 year old on our team. Great day!!

My next outing was with Elfie to Somerford Park Farm for a play on the Arena Cross Country. It’s a fabulous venue to have only 30 miles away. They have such superb facilities. It was Elfie’s first play on the arena and he absolutely loved it. So much so that he learnt to have a little skip and a jump after the odd fence, but all in a nice way, he just wanted me to know he was enjoying himself. He jumped skinnies, steps, drops, doubles, in and out of water, a corner and lots more. He is such a dude.

Then my final outing of the season was to Tushingham Arena. I took Elfie and Frankie for the arena eventing and Percy came along to be grandad to Frankie on the lorry. 17 years old and Frankie still has to take a friend so he’s not left on his own. Elfie jumped in the 80cm class and absolutely loved it!!! He is really enjoying his jumping and was so brave over the cross country fences, perhaps a little unsure when I asked him to jump out of the arena down the bank but he kept going. In a big class of 22 he finished 4th. So proud of him. Then Frankie jumped in the 1m class. He was a cool cookie and gave me a lovely ride to take 1st place. Always good to end a year on a win!!!

We were supposed to be Arena Eventing with Frankie and Elfie just after Christmas at a new venue to us, Ashwood Arena, but unfortunately Jack Frost had better ideas and it was frozen off. Such a shame because both boys were super at home the day before. So my plans now are to get Percy back into work in January, to get fit for the event season and Frankie and Elfie will just continue going out to little competitions until the season starts. Elfie will hopefully head out to some unaffiliated events in April and with Frankie I hope to do some more Working Hunter classes.

Bring on 2017!!!