August and September

Dolsey and I went to Denbigh and Flintshire County Show in August for a Horse of the Year Show qualifier and another Coloured Horse And Pony Society Championships qualifier. We went all the way to Wales; Denbigh and Flint County is a lovely little county show and is very...country-fied. My Mum/groom/chauffeur ate an Ostrich burger whilst we were there, which shows you how very country-fied it is...
We did the HOYS qualifier class first and it went OK, Dolsey was a little bit unsettled in her show and went into canter for half a second which was quickly corrected. Otherwise it was an OK show. Conformation went badly as usual lol!
To my surprise we were called out 6th out of a lot of ponies so I was thrilled!
We then did the CHAPS class in the afternoon and came 2nd. Conformation was even worse but somehow, by some miracle she managed to get a mark of 48/50?!

September brought the CHAPS (UK) Championships, which was very exciting! The Wednesday before the event me and Dolsey stayed at my friends house as we were travelling down together on the Thursday. Dolsey settled in straight away and loved her new 'house'; she quickly found that the feed room was behind her stable and was soon happpily kicking the doors when she didn't have enough attention. Dolsey was ridden by my friend in the menage and then put to bed. We then went inside for a lovely roast dinner as it was the last proper meal we could have before 3 whole days of camping in tents!
Thursday I got up early, mucked out and then had breakfast. We then began preparing the ponies - they both had baths and were wrapped in bandages and lycra! Then the fun part - fitting 2 ponies, show grooming stuff for 2, tack (at least 3 bridles and a saddle each), rugs for every occasion (in case it rained or was hot, or snowed, or was just normal), mucking out tools, feed, water and skip buckets, 2 bales of haylage, feed for the ponies and us for 3 days, an 8 man tent (even though there were only 3 of us in it), tables, chairs, 3 suitcases, show riding clothes and other miscellaneous items that we might have needed but probably didn't need into a 4x4 and a trailer. Oh, and we also had to fit the people in too. When we had squashed all of this in we had to fit the ponies in the trailer. The only problem was that we had packed the front full of stuff so there was nowhere to go once you had led the pony in. I put Dolsey in first and then had to pass her to my friends Mum to tie up (she had to squeeze through the jockey door) whilst I had to breathe in very much and go back past Dolsey to go out through the back! We then foudn a better way of putting Harley in - put his lead rope round his neck, and send him in at the bottom of the ramp with nobody to lead him in, LOL. We then ha to grab him at the front of the trailer and find somewhere to tie him up.
When this ordeal was over, we got in the car (me sat with my knees under my chin because we couldnt fit a grooming box anywhere else apart from under my feet!!) and set off for Lincolnshire.
After a few hours, a few wrong turns and missed directions (don't read Horse and Hound whilst you are supposed to be navigating!!)we arrived and found our stables. We put the ponies away and then before it got dark we had to put up the 8 man tent. In gale force winds. :|
At one point it looked like the 3 of us were going to go paragliding with the ground sheet but thankfully we managed to hold it down and get the pegs in. I had the job of bashing tent pegs in, which I think was better than trying not to be blown away with different parts of tent. We eventually got it up in a fashion, then realised that the ground sheet was wonky and had to rearrange everything. We then had to put bedrooms inside and it was finally done!! Then was the part of furnishing the tent with air beds and camp beds and tables and chairs, and it was done. It was now dark, and then my Mum, 2 sisters and another friend appeared with their tents that they had to put up. By then I was a tent expert and so they were up in a jiffy. We were all quite exhausted and had to go to bed.

Friday was the first day of competition and I had the CHAPS Factor final to do as well a dressage test. The CHAPS Factor is a class to find a future star and involved going through preliminary judging where the 4 top exhibits perform to music in the evening performance. Dolsey was included in the top 4 and so we were through to the evening performance!
Next we changed clothes and put on out stressage tack and did prelim 13. Dolsey pulled my arms out as usual in a snaffle! We managed to get through the test and ended up a creditable 9th out of more than 20 exhibits.
We then waited for the evening and did out preformance to 'Candyman' - video evidence is here! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz6vbTQ9CFo - see stewards in the corner LOL, I think everybody enjoyed the performance, which is good because after this the audience votes for the person they want to win!
After a wait whilst results were counted we were called back in for the placings. Dolsey and I won! We won a big rosette, sash and a CHAPS UK Champion rug! Video evidence again here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bWs6-A7p4g&feature=related
Friday night we went partying at the CHAPS Disco and drank far too much and danced far too much. Saturday came far too quickly and I was so tired that I was a complete numpty rider! We did the native ridden finals and got through to the evening. We then did the junior ridden class and were pulled in 2nd, Dolsey was super in her show and then REFUSED THE JUMP so we were dropped to 7th! She was however absolutely super dooper in the conformation section which was really good, and we got a fab mark of 38/40.
Saturday evening came and we were 8th in the Native Open Ridden Final.
Went to bed early on Saturday (think it was about 9 o'clock!) because I was so tired. Sunday came and we did the HOYS class but got nowhere because Dolsey had tucked up and didn't look her best for the late nights, early mornings and lots of riding!
All in all we had a very fun but very tiring weekend at CHAPS and it is definitely something you can only do once a year! But I can't wait to do it next year!!