It’s the end of a long hot day. We’ve just finished our XC round – I throw a bucket of water over Frank and start to load tack into the lorry. Nathan, who having only just returned from holiday, is wearing a nice new white T shirt, leads Frank into the lorry before I had chance to remove the studs – it’s OK, says Nathan, I’ll do it – hand me the tools. ‘Oh no what’s this? Frank has lost a shoe Jools…’ ‘left one is it? Oh I’m not surprised – I’m amazed it stayed on for as long as it did’. Picking up the right fore, suddenly, Frank begins to pee all over Nathan who is stuck between Frank and the lorry partition…. I leap down the ramp to grab a bucket and manage to catch most of it. Nathan, splattered in horse piss is not best pleased as he wearing his Sunday best. Kurt, returning from taking my number and medical armband back to the clubhouse finds Nathan jumping up and down in disgust. Kurt’s strictly non-horsey, so is bemused by Nathan’s golden shower experience but Nathan is not so amused. I’m a bit surprised when Nathan suggests we go and look for the shoe and he marches off in the direction of the last fence of 24. Kurt and I follow behind. I’ve already walked the course once, and flown around it on Frank so I’m a bit tired – I’d quite like to go home…maybe even eat something before I pass out. The shoe has studs in it (Supastuds) I tell Kurt, so it’s kind of worth retrieving… sort of. However, the ground is quite poached in places and there’s a deep and fairly tangled cover of long dried mown grass which has dried to approximately the same colour as the lost shoe. The shoe could be buried in the ground, could be on the ground or of course could have been flung off and even be in a hedge – we’d be very lucky to find it. Kurt asks innocently ‘What does this thing look like exactly?’ Shuddup….? Are you kidding me, Kurt? ‘Well, he said, I’m thinking of a football boot type of shoe with studs… does it look anything like that?’ No Kurt, its a fcuking horse shoe – y’know, metal horse shoe shaped shoe kind of thing, meant to be lucky, as in, we will be lucky to find it as it’s a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack! ‘. Anyway, the shoe doesn’t appear to be anywhere down at the end of the XC course, so we turn to walk up hill, eyes down still hopeful we might be lucky. Halfway up the incline I look up to see that Nathan isn’t even walking the course, he’s on the track by the lorry park. ‘Nathan! what are you doing? the hoofprints are over here – this is where we might find the shoe’. I glance at Kurt and comment that Nathan is obviously bored now… having suggested we look for the shoe he’s now wishing he hadn’t … look at him Kurt, he’s not even looking anymore…. OMG how do you put with him – he’s so mauve*. Kurt just shrugs, bless him, and keeps on looking for the horsey boot lucky studded shoe thing. Reaching the water jump Kurt call’s over to Nathan and suggests he wades in because he’s sure it could be in there – in fact we think we can see something glinting . Nathan gives us a look like, that’s not even funny, and continues to wander far off the hoof beaten track. ‘It’s not going to be easy y’know Kurt… keeping Nathan on the straight and narrow’.
Reaching the steps, at fence eight, I think this is a likely place to lose a shoe – but so far no cigar. After the steps, Nathan suggests we divide into two search parties. He’ll walk over to the warm up area which is quite close and a short distance beyond fence nine. Kurt and I, he suggests, can back track fence 10 through to the first fence. Feeling here we’ve drawn the short straw and watching Nathan disappear in the direction of the clubhouse I wander over from fence 10 to fence nine and Kurt who’s looking a bit fed up now is torn, I can see, between following Nathan and staying behind with me to remain loyal to the lost horse shoe cause which, to be honest, seems fruitless. As fence nine is at an odd angle, on a fairly steep slope I think back to riding the course. Sometimes you just know when a horse has lost a shoe, the horse goes lame, may even pull up, sometimes you hear it go – especially if the back foot has pulled the front shoe off. Bit like driving when you get a flat tyre, sometimes you know instantly or sometimes you might be driving along for hours wondering why drivers are pointing at you and flashing. Anyway, when the adrenaline is flowing it can be hard to recall but I had a feeling it was about here the shoe was cast – and sure enough, there it was, just on the take off for fence nine. Poor Frank had gone round half the XC course without his lucky shoe on his recently poorly bruised left foot. This might explain why we had a couple of stops at the bottom as its not like Frank to duck out. I don’t know how Nathan could’ve missed the shoe… there it was, lying in full view on top of the ground, lucky horse shoe shaped complete with both supa studs. It was a nice feeling to have found it. Maybe I was meant to find it. May be it will bring me some luck after all…. success at ODE doesn’t come easily… it involves a lot of practice and some more… however a little bit of luck never goes amiss.
Hoping that Frank is sound and ready to rock at the Riding Club showjumping finals in Lincoln next weekend. It had better be a supa lucky horse shoe!
*Fans of the film ‘Withnail and I’ will know what is meant by this term. Anyone who hasn’t seen this film should watch it. Immediately.
Only Joolz and Horses 