At the beginning of last week I looked at my schedule and I wasn’t sure how it was going to work. I’ve started riding for Mark Todd a few days a week, I have my three horses, and I am also riding a few for Sam Albert who rode for Jamaica at the Olympics in Hong Kong.  Needless to say, things have been a bit hectic!  Also, somehow it is already the end of February and our season starts in a week!  This means driving the horses a few days a week to the gallops to get them fit and taking them all cross country schooling. In England, because the majority of riders over here give their horses November and December off, most of the horses haven’t seen a ditch since September or October.  This means cross-country schooling can be fairly entertaining.  The problem is that most people wait too long to take their horses schooling because the weather is horrific and the ground is like a swamp.   You keep telling yourself: “Oh I will just wait until next week and hopefully it will not be so wet.”  Well, surprise surprise, the rain hasn’t stopped and the ground has been getting progressively worse.  It is England after all!  I am included in this optimistic group of people who think the ground may get better.  Unfortunately, after waiting and waiting, I had to brave the bad ground and the pouring rain and chuck the horses into my trusty Roberta and get them out for some cross country.  Funny enough, its seems everyone else had the same idea and when I took my horses out on Thursday there were around twenty lorries parked alongside the cross country field.  This congestion can be explained by the fact that most cross-country places close when it’s this wet.  The only place that stays open, rain or shine, is Boomerang