Rain and More Rain

The Open Day began with a knock on my door just before 6...I was just about to leg it out of the door to feed the every hungry orphan lambs (Gavin and Smithy) when Nicky tipped up, and so the day kicked off in pretty good time. It had been a bit of a sleepless night for us all because the thunder and lightening had rattled around our hill in sporadic bursts and we were expecting the heavens to open at any moment - in which case the horses would have been soaking wet and probably covered in mud (we had taken a bit of a flyer and left them out in the fields, thinking that they would be calmer during the day when we brought them in)... luckily this was not the case and we just escaped by bringing them in the nick of time. I am absolutely astonished by the number of kind and generous volunteers that arrived dead on 7.30am - Sam Ricks with daughter Keira, Susie, Gary et al, I think there were about 20 kind and generous folk in the end, all willing to turn their hand to anything, at one point I even saw Sam clearing out a drain.
It is always exciting when the tradestands start arriving and you can start to see the day take shape and before we knew it visitors started to arrive, including Peppa Pig. The arena displays were fantastic although Coudy was a bit disappointed that little Transpique didn't perform quite as well as usual; TP was a bit taken aback at all the flapping of the banners and couldn't concentrate but it didn't really matter he still managed to give everyone a small glimpse of his tricks. This was followed by an inspiring glimpse of Polocrosse undertaken by Neil and Karen Smith from Horsewyse, I am sure that it will encourage many people to take more interest in this relatively new sport (kind of a lacrosse on horseback) and it was even more impressive because they used 4 ex-racehorses. Mr Andrew Hoy was phenominal, he demonstrated the art of teaching a horse to jump and his finale jumping over 2 blocks was extraordinary. Then came the parade of horse led by Menorah (the winner of the 2010 Greatwood Hurdle)followed by Blazing Bailey, Strong Flow and Bindaree. Then we had the rehomed horses: Lesley with Fairfax Flicker, Patrick with Mistress Polly, Graeme with Park Lane Princess, Helen with Natterjack and Rachel with Farnborough. The horses looked fantastic - Helen won best turned out with Natterjack but it was a really hard call! Tish the naughty little Shetland pony disgraced himself yet again by bolting out of the arena hauling poor Becky behind him but not before he had managed to give her a hefty boot on the shin. South West Greyhound Rescue came out in force and paraded their greyhounds and it was moving to hear some of the sad stories. Huge huge thanks to everyone for making such a great show and taking the trouble to turn up.
Tricia and Harriet were flat out in the outside classroom organising the children's crafty corner - Harriet told me her back was killing her after bending over for 5 hours helping children with their painting and poor Tricia hardly had a moment to turn around, I don't think either of them had time for lunch. Kayleigh, Melanie were fully occupied at the tradestand, with Maddy and Craig ducking and diving gathering the money from the cars. It was a fantastic day, and all credit to everyone.....
Big thanks to TH White for sponsoring the day, to Richard from Mcgonnell and Gillatt for ensuring the welfare of the horses throughout the day, William Hill and Charlton Baker. I must mention Turf Legends - their support in producing Greatwood shirts is unbelievable - please support them and us by ordering them - great shirts - great value and great generosity by Turf Legends.
The only downside was that the weather was simply dreadful, it poured with rain most of the day but at least it didn't put everyone off from attending.