Happy New Year Everyone!
Hope everyone is having a great start to the year! I’ve been playing lots of fun and exciting polo on the beach the last few weeks I cant believe its already the end of January – winter is flying by which is great! Only one month to go and ill be turning the fat fluffy snow ponies into lean mean fit fighting machines once again!
I’ve been really lucky as I play polo on the beach every other weekend, due to the tide at the seaside and each week its been amazing weather every week I have played, the beach has been a little wet but its been really warm I’ve just been playing in a jumper and with my Edie Gilet on!
I’ve played the pony Cliff a few times and he’s been great, he’s been clipped out and is looking really smart and is wintering well, he was a little frisky last weekend as it was really wild and a little windy but it was great as he was clearly feeling good which is always fun and keeps me in my seat!
Last weekend I was put in an all girls team against two teams, each comprising of two big men! So we did really well to get in the final beating the coaches team but lost out in the final, I donated a bottle of Veuve Clicquot so it went down a treat after playing I was so thirsty and absolutely shattered!!
Here’s lots of pictures of the action – we even featured on Calendar news for the area on ITV so that was all a bit of good fun for us – we waited a week to see us on TV (watching every calendar for the entire week!) but it was great fun and something really nice to be part of – although I did nearly run the poor film girl over at one point where she was very brave in risking her life for a real action shot – bent down just near goal! Luckily Cliff and I avoided her! Pheww that would of made interesting viewing!
It was all going well until the snow came!!! We got hit quite badly with it – in fact it’s still here and refusing to go!
The ponies however have done fantastically well! Chalita only has one of the Masta Avante rugs on and is so toasty and warm, the others are doing really well and are super fat! Roxy has picked up a little and continues to chase poor Noemi around the hay with Chalita and Brazillia bonding well finally! And standing in charge. They are doing great and I think Noemi and Chalita have done amazing well adapting to the UK weather they have been in the UK now for four years after flying from Argentina in 2008.
My young horses are doing well, Mollie is doing really great but I haven’t worked her much, time has been a problem as I am so busy with my work at the moment and it’s a really good time for me to work and earn some money for the summer season. So once those light nights start coming I will have so much more time for them.
Brandy got a foot abscess so I’ve turned her out in Beaus old field for a bit of TLC and she’s keeping one of my old ponies Felix company- Felix is thrilled he has a new younger model girlfriend! She’s also near our hall which is converted into flats and she gets to see lots of people coming and going, she’s super friendly and even gets carrots and apples as treats what they have started buying and keeping in their cars! So she’s really happy with herself, Mollie I have turned her out with lots of my dads horses, what we breed to show jump, so she’s really got much more of an attitude now and is really coming out of herself, I had another youngster last year what did not have much punch so I turned her out with the babies and she altered and really quickly so its great that I have the chance to do that!
Last year with the water situation we had to fill up lots of containers to water the horses and maybe do three or four trips from the horse to the field but this year we have got really sorted and organized and ta-da! Here we are and the truck we are using – it’s great, my dad has got it all hooked up with a super long pipe and it takes a quarter of the time to water! All the horses are doing really well too as we have lots of one year olds and young stock – they seem to for some reason love the truck and continue to lick it! Strange!
At the start of March ill start the ponies back in work, because the weather these past few weeks and the lack of time my yard at home is only half finished, so hopefully ill be able to move the ponies back to the polo club in a few weeks and be based there again once season meaning I can share the workload as with four horses and a full time job I sadly cant do the horses on my own – so looking forward to taking the ponies back to their summer home in a few weeks time to start preparations for the summer season!
I’ve lots of ideas and fixtures lined up already for this season although sadly my team mate Riki from last year who I won the Castle Howard Cup with and the Yorkshire Open Championship with is heading back to Germany where she is from, I’m really sad about it as I was really lucky to find such a good team mate and friend and it will be a sad time when she goes back, we have however talked about arranging to take a team from the UK and play at their soon to be new club in Germany – my friends are excited to be taking team Tottie to Germany so I hope that works out! We also plan a big team trip to Argentina next year as a nice way to all keep in touch and have a little holiday combining it with some polo too! – So lots of exciting things happening. I’ve also made lots of new friends this winter so I hope to keep in touch with them and take the ponies over to a few other clubs and play some friendly chukkas!
I’ve just seen the Tottie Spring/ Summer collection and I am so excited! Have to say Tottie done a fantastic job with the new horse wear range – I LOVE it all! And I really love the colours of the new Clover Hoody!
So lots to look forward to – just need to lay off the chocolate and start getting polo fit!
Love Anna x