2020 has been a strange year in many ways, the season kicked off as normal with trips down to Isleham, Oasby and Lincoln in March. All the horses were feeling great and it looked like a promising season ahead until the dreaded Covid hit. We are very lucky to have excellent facilities at home so during lockdown this gave us some much needed time to spend on going back to basics, the horses enjoyed some short holidays and varied work which meant that when the restrictions were lifted we were ready and raring to go for Aske in July. Our lockdown homework paid off and we were rewarded with two wins and two seconds in the OI and I section. August was a busy month for us getting the younger 100 horses out and travelling south with the more advanced horses to events such as Cholmondely Castle, Skipton, Aston Le Walls for the advanced with Oughterard Cooley who jumped a great double clear to finish 8th in a very competitive section. August also saw the first International at Burgham where we had 7 running in both national and international classes the national horses all finished inside the top ten in their sections. New ride Jolly Jumper P was pipped at the post for the win by my old boss and mentor Ian stark. Scotland unfortunately only managed to get two events to run one of which my local Forgandenny but unluckily the new date clashed with Burnham Market International where Oughterard Cooley had another good run in the 4*L. Kirriemuir ran in probably one of the wettest days we have had this year and the team did great to keep the show on the road, made all the easier with happy cheery volunteers who helped keep everyone’s spirits up. We finished the season off at Thorsberton with AKD Cooley Lockdown and Hilton Cooley in the 3*L.
The highlight of the year for us was welcoming our beautiful baby daughter Charlotte into the world. Time for us to now have some quality family time as a three. All horses are already back in low grade work building up their muscles and strength after their holidays in preparation for next season.
Wills
