1st March
Hello everyone, it’s Hilary here,

You may remember, I used to blog on the H+P site, a couple of years ago - well, my Pony Club - the Cheshire Hunt North - has been asked to be part of the entertainment at this year’s Horse of the Year Show.

It is a great honour and we are all very excited. We were told that the ride would be made up of 16 riders, 12 of which would be 12 years or under. The other four would be older as they would be the leaders. The 12 would ride ponies no bigger than 13.2hh and the four leaders were not allowed ponies bigger than 14.2hh. After two weeks' of auditions the decisions were made and I was lucky enough to be picked as a leader.

Since then we have started rehearsals, one every week at the moment. At this week’s practice they played possible music as we rehearsed. We also learned the beginning and rode it with the music! As our theme is HOYS School Musical we are listening to songs from High School Musical, Hairspray and Grease etc. It is so much fun when we ride to the music, especially as we all know all the words!!

Our youngest ride member, only five years old, came to rehearsals this week. She rides a really sweet Shetland and as you can see they make the cutest pair!

We all have HOYS fever at every practice, and we can’t wait for everything to be ready for performances! I will keep you posted after every rehearsal to let you know how we are getting on.

Keep Riding
Hilary

Hey all

Hilary here:

Our practises for the Musical Ride, we'll be performing at HOYS, have really progressed this week.

We practised the beginning of the ride again but we have also added on the next bit! It’s really starting to come together. We had the music on as well so that added extra excitement to the practise!

To begin with some of the younger riders were finding it difficult to stay shoulder to shoulder so we all did an exercise to help. This involved us holding our partner's shoulder as we rode around.

Soon we all had the hang of it and we were allowed to let go!

It was also decided this week, which side was the boys and which were the girls. This is good as it means we can now start thinking about the costumes, particularly headgear. This could be a problem as we must stay safe and wear our riding hats.

We stay in the same pairs every week and the ponies often become friends.
Sometimes the pairing is so good that the ponies even look alike! Just look at these two!

Hope and Annabel (their riders) are becoming firm friends too!

The spring grass is on its way, so practises might get a little exciting soon! Will keep you posted!
Keep riding
Hilary

Hi folks

Sarah and Tippy here:

Well, it's been an eventful week in the H+P office. Laura's off today at the Young Farmers get-together in Skegness (yeah, I know, weird!) and Hannah's battle-scarred again. She was run over, by a cyclist, last Saturday and has broken her wrist, arm and dislocated her arm. Ouch! The horrible cyclist didn't even stop to see if she was okay.

Hannah is now off work and in plaster!

It's 80 years since the PC was started this year, so I thought it would be good for us to find out how it's changed over the years. Hannah was due to be going to a PC rally with H+P's pony Tippy in a couple of weeks - gatecrashing a junior ride - to see how rallies have changed since she was a member.

the plan has rather backfired though - as she can't do it with her arm in a sling, I'm going to have to ride Tippy instead. This may however, be rather amusing for the other riders. Firstly, I haven't ridden for a year so won't be very good and the instructor will have to nag me none-stop. Secondly, Tippy may well get overexcited and chuck in some bucks so I will probablyl fall off and thirdly, I'll probably get sent home as I can't find my PC badge. Laura is on about coming just to spectate and laugh at me! Thanks!

Hiya

Laura here:

It’s all going on! This last 10 days has seen a real baby boom.

We have had 10 new piglets and the sheep have started lambing - so the stables now look more like a crèche! Even more exciting is our new kitchen resident. Dorothy the piglet!!!

Yes, you are reading this correctly we have a pig living in our house. When the pig had her litter, piglet Dorothy snuck off on her own and ended up not getting any milk from her mum which made her poorly.

We found her in a bucket, nearly dead. We thought she wouldn’t make it but a spell under the hair dryer at home warmed her up and brought her back to life. However, she had been away from her mum too long by then so couldn’t go back to her. This means she is now being reared at home instead! How cool is that?

Not so good thought, McVity has been a bit lame. We think he must have pulled a muscle fighting over the hay (four horses, eight piles of hay and they still choose to fight over one pile – stupid creatures!)

When we went up to the field on Wednesday night he was really lame but today he is much better so I think he will be okay. Another week off and he’ll be up and running again!

Bye for now!

Hey all,

Hilary here:

Two weeks have passed since I last blogged. The Musical Ride is progressing at a fast pace now. Last week we perfected the start and continued with the middle section. This week, we started to learn a new move. Although when watching it looks pretty simple, in reality it’s really hard. I don’t want to give too much away but I will say that half the ride faces one way and half faces the other.

The new move is progressing well...

Also, last week in keeping with our HSM theme it was decided who was going to be cheerleaders and who was going to be basketball players. I wanted to be a basketball player so badly that I swapped sides! I didn’t think my pony would look good with pompoms!!

On Sunday we were all treated to a full dress rehearsal of another musical ride our branch (the Cheshire Hunt North) is doing in memory of our former DC, Psyche Kennerley. They are performing a ‘Me and My Shadow’ dressage to music display at the British Dressage Winter Championships at Hartpury. It is brilliant – there are only eight in it, four of our more senior members and four littler ones (the shadows). If you are going to the Championships, check it out - it is well worth seeing.

It will soon be the Easter holidays and we are all looking forward to spending more time with our ponies. I think rehearsals will continue though.

Hi peeps

Sarah and Tippy here:

I've just discovered that after not riding for exactly one year - I no longer can! Well, Tippy has decided I'm not going to ride her!

As you will see from this piccy, she tried very hard to dislodge me. (She was very good when Hollie rode her the day before! I know because I watched.)

So for those of you who voted on the H+P poll and thought I wouldn't come a cropper, you were right but only just!

Hello again

Laura here:

As promised a little snap of Dorothy the piglet.

She’s progressing well - getting quicker by the day - especially on the carpet where she's got a bit more grip! Wooden and stone floors are still a bit of an issue. She tends to slip around but she’s getting there.

McVity is sound again, so as soon as the sun starts to hang around a bit more I will be off on some lovely summer hacks. Although, if we are going on the last few days then I may have a wait. It’s so chilly that Hannah has turned the radiator back on in the H+P office. She is a bit of a wimp when it comes to the weather though - she’s still wearing her winter thermals!

Hi
Hannah here:

Boy am I happy to be back in the H+P office, it gets so boring just lazing round the house, trying not to move too much!

Anyway, not long now 'til The Ultimate Pet Show, (May 2-4) which look set to be a bit of a horse fest on the Sunday, with:

* A morning seminar on Equine Behaviour, (10-10.30am) which tells you how to work with your pony’s natural behaviour to get the best out of him in a tricky situation.

* Stunt demos featuring an amazing TV and film horse-master and his horse (1.45-2.15pm and 3.45-4.15pm) and a lights, camera, action seminar (2.30-3pm) where you can find out how horses are trained for film work! That is a lot to keep you entertained!

If you’re a fan of all things cuddly/ scaly/ hairy, well all pets really, you should check out the cool stuff on offer at the show on www.ultimatepetshow.co.uk and get yourself down to Birmingham NEC, it’s going to be awesome!

Check out these stunt horses - you can see their trainer and his horse for real at the Ultimate Pet Show.