Aston Le Walls lay-over

Once we did make it to Aston Le Walls it seemed all was well.. unfortunately there were a few other hiccups along the way but not any involving Quincy which is really all that matters!  The first day was a busy one since they were running a horse trials all day so we got a good look at lower level eventing in the UK. I think most people I know would be put off walking training level course that had a ditch and wall as fence 4, one stride combination at fence 5, roll-top into water at fence 6, and also included a bank combination, mound combination, giant corner, trakener, and an option at the 2nd water to jump in over a log atop a very steep mound... My overall impression was that it would be nice if more of our courses gave us the opportunity to jump questions like those...  And I love that the dressage rings are truly just white rails lying on the ground.. Talk about making sure a young horse stays between your aids since it would be so easy to leave the ring!

Later in the day we were invited to watch the Burghley coverage and then got to pitch in when they had a few volunteers needing to leave early.. Jeff and I got to be cross-country starters our first day in the UK!  Once the competition was over Quincy got to go for a nice hack and was introduced to the thousands of birds around the farm (they raise pheasants as well!).

Wormleighton Hall B&B

View from our room at Wormleighton Hall

With a lovely B&B just down the road past the pub we were all set! Next on the list was the rental car (and Jeff learning to drive) and finding a tack shop so that we could pick up a few things, namely a wheelbarrow. So Monday was filled with excitement while we spent most of the day learning to navigate the super narrow windy roads that have no names.  If you don't know the name of the village you need to go to or through you basically just have to guess at which road to turn on or be lucky enough to have your gps pick up a signal. It was not difficult to waste away most of the day but we did get back in plenty of time for Quincy to have a good dressage school.  He was a little grumpy about having to go back to serious work but by the end of the ride felt great.

Since I knew that we would focus quite a bit on the dressage once we arrived at Blenheim I decided to give Quincy a light jump school Tuesday morning.  He was fairly uninterested and didn't feel like making much of an effort.  I didn't want to push the issue in case he was feeling the effects of his travels so we kept the jumps small and just did enough to get him loose.  Then Jeff and I were off to find Blenheim and our cottage since Quincy couldn't get a ride until later in the day...