Our old Horsebox was a very basic, very old two horse tin with no living really to speak of!! This always made staying away rather interesting, and not in a good way! It was always cold, wet, dark and miserable! My poor mother even had to sleep in the horse area if we didn't take a tent! So we decided it was time to upgrade and after looking at lots of websites we found one that looked perfect for us which was also local! We immediately liked it and after our mechanic vetted it for us we bought it!!

It's an Iveco converted by Oakland, two horse, 7.5 tonne lorry. It has full living - toilet, shower, TV, gas hobs, a grill, fridge, loads of storage space, heating, seating, a removable table and sleeping space. I absolutely love it and think we are very very lucky to have found it and for a good price too! Can't wait for our first outing in it and we will be able to fully put it through it's places at Glanusk where we will be away from the Wednesday through to the Sunday!

Just a quick update of what is going at the moment! Belvedere is continuing to come on well and will be coming home soon. This coming week I am going to take Jack with me and work at Tor's so that I can get used to riding Belvedere more and have some help from Tor. At the end of the week I am going to head up to Cumbria to celebrate a friends 18th and Jack will come home with my mum. Depending on how things have gone, Belvedere will either come home with Jack or we will collect him the following week. Therefore I will (hopefully) be able to get out and do some eventing on Belv shortly and have planned for our first event to be an unaffiliated Pre-Novice at Stockland Lovell.

Jack is doing very well and I have enjoyed playing with him on the flat. He is very good at counter canter and simple changes so that has been very fun. I have also toyed with a few strides of half pass etc which has been enlightening! We took him and Rosie to the gallops today for a bit of a fitness run which was great fun. Jack looked distinctly racehorse like and was fitter than I expected which is good! Fingers crossed for Weston in a few weeks!

And finally, we had a hunt ball in honour of our retiring Huntsman (Harley) on Friday night, it was a very good evening. My brother and his friend were there taking photos and they got some lovely shots.

Well, I was quite bored tonight so I decided to make a little video! I decided I would make one on jumping, so typed 'Jump' into YouTube to find a relevant song and discovered a PERFECT one! I spent at least two hours on the video, possibly more, and exhausted my video stocks and my brain!

However, I am very pleased with the outcome. I hope you enjoy it - Just a bit of light hearted relief basically!

Here are the other images I was playing with. (Click to enlarge)

I have to say, I do rather like this little image. Even though it doesn't work as the favicon I think I am going to have to find another use for it! Hope you like it!

Seeing as England has suddenly become like Iceland and is covered from head to toe in snow (see picture below) we decided to have a play!

The snow has been so frustrating because it has resulted in having the horses sitting in their stables bored and not being able to do anything or go anywhere. Belvedere was supposed to be going to Hartpury Therapy centre on Saturday to start the diagnostic process, but we couldn't get him there. Which means that is it getting closer & closer to the eventing season and we haven't sorted his problems.


So we followed the principle, if you can't beat them - join them!
(Click to enlarge)

I realise this is a few days late, but I was away for New Year with some fellow Eventing friends! We all met up in Lincolnshire for a meal and frivolities around town/home etc. Had a brilliant time, and shockingly managed to escape a hangover - Oh I love being young!

So Happy New Year to all my readers, supporters and sponsors! Hope we all have a fantastic 2010!

Some friends of mine have made/are making videos to sum up their 2009, so I felt inspired to do the same! I am not very good at the whole video making scene, but I am quite pleased with the outcome.
It's a simple collection of video snippets of Belvedere, Rosie and Ross throughout the year. There are also clips of me riding some friend's horses.
Enjoy!

I also made myself the challenge of choosing THREE photos to sum up the entire year. Now that was a task and a half I can assure you! In the end I decided to have one horsey picture, one social and one of my other activities.

I thought I would upload some photos from Christmas day onto my blog! Some horsey and some not! For once there are some pictures of me with tidy hair, makeup and some smart clothes (a rare occasion!!!)
My Christmas went like this - 9am Stockings with my brother and cousins. My favourite gift from this was a Radley passport cover. Then I went out and rode the four legged creatures in the school, and my cousin joined me. (She rode Rosie!) Then a quick shower and a manic change of clothes for the main present opening session. I got a lovely old style photo album from my mum (Consequently I then spent a large chunk of Boxing Day sticking photos into it!). I also got a proper video camera from my parents which I can't stop playing with!!! Next was the Christmas lunch! As usual Gran had done an amazing job, and all 17 of us were well equipped with all manner of yummy food!
The afternoon consisted of general sitting and mooching trying to get over the huge amount of food we had consumed!

So, here are the photos, I hope you enjoy them!
First off are the Non-Horsey pics!

And of course, the horsey ones!
(Click to enlarge)

Tthe snow has arrived in Ledbury, just in time for a white Christmas!!
So a merry Christmas to all sponsors, supporters, readers and friends from 'Katherine Begley Eventing'.