August

Snowshill – Bowls – Riding – GCSEs

Helen visited early in the month and we celebrated in anticipation of her and Roger’s birthdays on 10 and 14 respectively. Helen also came for the Bank Holiday weekend. Reasonably kind weather allowed us to cook on the barbecue on each occasion. On Friday 5 we visited Snowshill Manor, near Broadway, an old house now run by the National Trust and famous for a remarkable collection of memorabilia assembled by the English eccentric, Charles Wade.

Click here for a report on our visit to Snowshill

Roger’s bowling season reached its climax. He had a good run in the Club competitions, thanks to a favourable draw and one or two unexpected wins, and reached the final of the Men’s Championship and the semi-final of the men’s handicap singles, losing narrowly to the same player on each occasion.

The main excitements of the month concerned Jay’s riding, and Teresa has been heavily involved in this as unpaid groom, trainer, dresser and driver. The little blue horsebox chugging up and down the road to Pershore at the weekends must have become a familiar and a not too welcome sight for local drivers.

On Sunday 7, it was Jay’s first One Day Event, and luckily this coincided with Helen’s visit, so we were all able to see it. This competition is a miniature three-day event, combining dressage, show-jumping and a cross-country course.

Before lunch, there were the dressage test and the jumping: Clyde performed solidly as usual, finishing in the places in the dressage and with a clear round for jumping, which meant Jay would carry forward a promising position to the afternoon’s cross-country course, but this was something she had never done before. It was a hot day, and we had a picnic lunch as we waited nervously by the van.

Jay waits, with Helen, in the shade of the van

After lunch the competitors gathered in the field to be called in turn for the cross-country course.

Jay waits to be called

The course of some twenty varied rustic jumps was laid out over three fields, and Helen and Roger opted to view the event from the second field, where they could see most of the course, but not the short first section, nor the finish in the third field.

The first competitor they saw galloped in from the first field at high speed and scarcely slowed the whole way round, soaring high over every jump, and disappeared towards the finish, where she no doubt finished with no faults and a super-fast time. There were long gaps between the competitors, but the next one did not get past the first fence in the second field, and then several others retired at more distant parts of the course, so we realised that Jay had a real test on her hands. When Clyde came through, he proceeded at a steady canter, but jumped everything in his path, including the converted sun-bed which looked really scary. By the time he disappeared into the third field, though Roger and Helen’s knuckles were white, it looked as if he would finish clear, and indeed Helen was fast enough running behind him to see him finish at the gallop as if to catch the judge’s eye.

Clyde jumps the sun-bed

We all assembled to congratulate Jay, though Teresa had not even dared to watch, and we realised that many of the competitors had not even made it into the second field (accounting for the long gaps). In fact, to cut a long story short, Clyde’s was the only other clear round after that first fast rider. So Jay and Clyde took second place in their first ever one-day event, plus ribbons for places in the dressage and show-jumping disciplines.

Jay and Clyde with their rosettes

On Bank Holiday Monday, Teresa took Jay to a country show in Prestbury, held in the fields next to our old house, and, once again, Helen was also home to see it. For the first time for Jay, Clyde had been entered in a veterans’ showing class (he is 22), where he took third place. For the rest of the month, Jay was a regular visitor to Allens Hill, usually accumulating points in the dressage and jumping classes.

Finally, the month brought Jay her GCSE results: despite her trepidation, she gained A*s, except for one, and had the quite unexpected bonus of a letter of congratulations from the examining board for an exceptionally high mark in Biology. Well done, Jay!

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