The Eventing Blog returns - A New Year, A New Yard..

New Yard

2009 has brought a huge breath of fresh air to Westerhouses, as it completed it’s transformation from the old historic base for the Jedforest Hunt in Roly Harker’s day to a modern Eventing Yard providing a base for NBR Eventing , whilst retaining the traditional stone buildings. It has turned out to be a gargantuan undertaking and there were times when one thought the project would never be completed, and the horses would never reach here. The weather has certainly been extremely unhelpful, but I suppose if you want to stress test to see if the yard could withstand adverse weather whilst being constructed we certainly were able to do so. This is being written in the middle of a heft snowstorm so get the chance to road test it under snow as well.
The other point that was clearly made by the builders that if the yard hadn’t been rescued now, it would have got beyond the point of no return and it would have been too late to save it in its current form.

It has been an immense challenge, and the task isn’t quite complete yet, but the yard is certainly workable and we now have seven horses and a pony in residence.
The horse walker blends in perfectly in the middle of the yard, and despite our location, the yard is far more sheltered than we expected, and the first month or so has been spent ironing out minor glitches.
It was a big moment when we could turn on the underfloor heating in the Tack room, rug room and utility room. (the benefit of installing a lot of concrete flooring anyway)
The one area of frustration remains the arena which has been underway for around 5 months so far, frustratingly just running into the very wet autumn. The 60 x 25 build into the side of a hill was a one stage looking more like a very big pond and there is an awful lot of earth to landscape. The drive also needs upgrading, but that will wait until the rest of the work completes.

But the result is amazing, and it looks as though this was what the buildings were originally created for. It undoubtedly helped having the potential tenant on hand to advise on what would work, and what wouldn’t as the project developed, which is one of the reasons we have an excellent end result.

So in addition to an Owner the Yard adds a new twist and a new responsibility for 2009.

New Year

But enough of the New for Old what about the horses.
The weather again hasn’t been kind hence the rather restricted programme without the arena, and with a minor virus having appeared anti social behaviour is the order of the day, as we make sure it clears.
But we have been looking ahead with some anticipation to the season unfolding, and providing the horses have had enough practice, it could be could be all over the country again for the family Kerr and even a trip to France. But we are getting ahead of ourselves a bit. The website has been updated http://www.nbreventing.com with news on the horses in the yard.
At present seven are in residence, and my daughters 12 hand pony Missy, who seems quite at home with the other bigger animals.
Within another month we should be up to the full quota of ten.

As for the three I am involved with the ownership of, it looks to be a busy season with the usual couple of events needed to warm up.
I am looking forward to visiting the likes of Burnham market and Belton in April, with Scone, Chatsworth, Houghton Hall, and Brigstock, possibles for may, and we are also looking at Jardy in late June and a three start for Mistral possibly at Blenheim in the autumn. There are obviously plenty of others but understandably the calendar gets hazier as the year progresses and we have to see how the horses perform. August seems to provide several either/or choices. Trig Point after his continued inclusion in the Equine pathway under stricter criteria will be aiming for his first One Star at Houghton in may and Freddy “ The Rocket Cob” Curtis will be aimed at the two star at the same event. More details can be found on the NBR website with some photographs
It all looks very exciting, but as I learnt last year the weather can play havoc with plans, as can balloting, and lets hope as far as the weather is concerned things are better in 2009.
Meanwhile dressage theory certainly can get underway with lots of new tests to learn. The practicals can get underway when the arena is installed.

The historic blogs can be tracked down on http://event-owner.blogspot.com/ and the next one is likely to be from the first event that I attend in late March early April.