Horses For Courses

I returned to Suffolk this weekend to eat something that wasn't a stir fry, get some doggy cuddles from Nellie and the spaniels, and also jump judge at the local team chase with mum.

The team chase is one of several (I think) and basically you get into teams of four riders, then you bomb around a cross country course as fast as you can, and you have to get to the finish with no less than 3 horses and riders.

Armed with a huge steaming flask of chai latte, plus tonnes of snacks, I settled down for what I thought would be a leisurely morning ticking boxes, eating, nattering on the radio, and doing some more eating.

As soon as the first team thundered past I knew I was wrong.

Mum had to walkie talkie to say the horses were over the jumps as they whizzed past,

 And I was left in charge of the ticking off of the teams, and of course, the most important job, whistling at spectators when a horse was coming.

Mum and I were rooting for team 30, RAW Botswana, especially as Lucy used to ride one of Ginny's ponies, Smartie!

 Kudos to Ollie to getting into the only good photos of Clifford!!!!

Smartie is on the left!

After a day in the wind and cold, I got home, popped some comfy clothes on and got down to cuddling my little pal.

Then we made a huge batch of sausage rolls to cheer some friends up.

Grab a packet of puff pastry, cut it in half and roll it out so its about 7 inches wide, and very long.
De-skin a packet of sausages and lie 1/3 in, drizzle a bit of mango chutney on top, and brush the extra 2/3 of pastry with a beaten egg.
Tightly roll it up, chop up, place on a baking tray with the seam at the bottom, and brush with the egg again.
Put in the oven for about 25 mins at 180 C

A little random, but that was my weekend!!!

Lucy

I wanted to post this so that everyone is on the right page, with the right facts, and I also know that this will reach a wider audience as I'm not friends with everyone Lucy knew on Facebook.

You may or may not have already seen through some sort of social media platform or heard through the grapevine that sadly I lost my little sister last week after her horse, Alfie, spooked at a farm vehicle on a farm track, near our house.

Despite our loss, there are so many things to be thankful for, firstly, Mum might not have heard Alfie canter past the house, the farm workers knew her and knew exactly what to do but the luckiest thing by far is that Lucy had people with her. She could have fallen off in the middle of nowhere and been on her own.
She was airlifted to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and after being in surgery for 3 hours we finally got to see her. This was on Wednesday 7th.

The next day she showed signs of breathing but she was still so ill that both her heart rate and blood pressure rocketed and after doing a number of tests doctors told us the news we had feared.

Poor little (only in age, she was a foot taller than me, clearly my genes were just sorting themselves out, but when it came to her, they knew what to do) Lucy was only 16  and so beautiful, an incredible rider and so loved by so many, and as one of her best friends, Anna, put so wonderfully: 
"The people she has gone to join are so lucky to have her, and we are so lucky to have known her, if only it could have been for longer."

Thank you everyone for all your kind words and support, especially to Lucy's friends and their families, I don't know what I would have done without you and I don't think I need to mention names for you to know who you are.

Mum and I will hopefully be going to collect her GCSE results for her on the 22nd, which she no doubt will have aced.

Rest In Peace Lu

30th January 1997 - 8th August 2013