My last blog left us clearing out hay barns and preparing the fields for the forthcoming Kent polocrosse tournament. Although the weather on the Saturday tried its best to ruin things, it was a great weekend and we had over 156 players – the most we’ve ever had at our tournament. Being the first competition of the season, Saturday night’s party was excellent with everyone catching up and our makeshift dancefloor played host to a lot of "interesting" moves!

As for the polocrosse, our club did well and it was great to see a lot of our younger players showing good form too. The team I was playing in won the A grade but we were very rusty on the Saturday! It was a multi-horse competition, meaning you can play more than one horse over the weekend, so I took the opportunity to give Ragtime a little run in between riding Banjo. Both went really well and I’m looking forward to their next run.

This weekend we decided to take it easy and went to see our friend, Mat Lodder, a professional polo player who runs a polo school near Windsor. We took Tom and Dan who work for us and met good friends Simon and Lizzie Shearing there for an instructional chukka. I’m not sure how much polo was played in between all the banter and laughter but it was a great afternoon. I need to find the time to practise hitting the little white ball more often!

After watching Mat play a match, we jumped in the car and headed for an evening meet at Lingfield racecourse to watch Farmer Palmer run. (He is also known as Barnaby and we own him as part of a syndicate.) It was a beautiful evening – perfect for a few beers and a punt! Unfortunately, we didn’t get into the Winner’s Enclosure this time… we’ll keep dreaming!

And now, back to reality. The yard is back in full swing on Monday with a new batch of horses for starting and retraining. Plus, Penny mentioned that she has just bought not only a broodmare and foal but another polocrosse horse! I knew I shouldn’t have let her out to look at horses on her own…