The Paragon of Virtue

Summer has arrived with a vengeance. The past 10 days have been glorious. Here on the Wolds hot days are often accompanied by balmy breezes wafting - or occasionally 'blowing' in - off the sea, and evenings are frequently accompanied by the most amazing sunsets.

Last weekend was the hottest of the year so far with people flocking to the beaches to cool off. Somewhat perversely, my horse and I were at 'Adult Summer Camp' - perhaps more accurately described as equine boot camp. Spread over 3 days, this is a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of the facilities of the Lincolnshire Rural Activities Centre and the experience of highly qualified trainers. Participants can do as much or as little as they like - so we did a session (one hour) each of dressage, show jumping and cross country on Saturday; dressage, show jumping and Le Trec on Sunday and dressage and show jumping plus a dressage and show jumping competition on Monday. In would be an understatement to say that my horse sweated and I glowed buckets! Normally he's such a cool character! He's never flustered or temperamental and will have a go at anything. In his 7 years here he has done most things: hunting (which he truly loves), cross country (next favourite thing), showjumping (which he used to think was just indoor hunting!), dressage (which he is learning to really, really like! - my view, not his) and Le Trec (which he will be doing more of in the future - possibly). Plus he'll hack out anywhere for as long as I like, alone or in company, and never, ever misbehaves even in the heaviest, or most bewildering of agricultural, traffic.

Who is this paragon of virtue?

He goes by the name of Rocco - aka Madonna's Child when competing at Dressage - and is a 16.2hh, 12 year old, bay, Irish Draft x Thoroughbred. Imported from Sligo in Ireland by Barbara Rich (of Leicestershire hunting fame) he was bred for the hunting field - where he truly excels: but he has grown into a genuine all-rounder, worth his weight in gold.

He's quite a character too and his favourite thing in all the world is bananas. The third photo shows us having a jumping lesson at 'boot camp'. His normal inclination is "see jump, must charge" so we've spent quite a bit of time getting him to slow up and think and actually jump rather than gallop madly at the obstacle ahead. He's really getting the hang of it now (shame about the rider) so after this lesson some of the other chaps had gathered together a bunch of banana skins as a reward! We have yet to discover how many he will eat before refusing to take any more. It's been suggested that they contain some hallucinogenic so maybe he's not so daft. This show jumping session was followed by cross country and he did get pretty excited as we went round so who knows? Anyway.... we came home with rosettes from both competitions on the Monday so clearly the training paid off. Next outing for the 'Child' is dressage competition on the 18th when we'll really see if it's made a difference....