what a day.....

well. Started at about 5 in the morning when it was clear younger cat had caught a mouse. so i got up and rescued that, then back to bed. Sleep was a struggle as partner had taken the duvet, the cats had the rest and my hip decided hurting was good. Julie was turning Molly out, so no rush.

Plan was, when we got going, to get wagon, take it to fitter's at Tow Law, then back to yard to do Molly and, if it had stopped raining/blowing, ride possibly. set off late (partner's idea of urgency leaves a lot t be desired!)

anyway, got down to friend's - 50 miles, not too far but the last bit from the A1 to the house is a pain - partner set off home andleft me, we did the paperwork and i set off.

Going up hill out of Masham, engine chucked it. I thought, might be i'd just not got enough power in it, got going again, didn't worry.

Got through Bedale and on to the A1 again at Leeming. First hill - and I was in top gear - chucked it again! This is a major dual carriageway folks, happily this section has loads of laybys. you can see already where this is going.

Got it going at third attempt, another couple of miles, next incline, chucked it again. this time had to sit a bit before it would start again.

Then it did it again. just before the catterick exit opposite the airfield (RAF Catterick; there's also an army base)

Rang fitter (who was waiting back specially for me - he was going to sort the hydraulics on the ramp). he thinks there's air getting in the fuel.

rang vendor - who was mortified.

We decided I should nurse it to Richmond Equestrian Centre, which I duly did, and leave it there. oddly, if I didn't go above 20 and didn't get into higher gear, it kept going.

Then, of course, how to get home? partner hadn't even got to where she was going by this point (her sister's in Cleadon).

This was about 3.15 in theafternoon by now. I finally got picked up at about 10 to 6 at night ... by which time i was frozen.

Some of the time iwas usefully entertained - the North East Welsh Pony show was on, so I watched the last two classes whilst keeping warm in their big indoor (partly in the cafe, which had a heater!).

There were some very nice ponies, some being very nicely ridden and some being very badly ridden.

two caught my eye in I think the ridden Section C's - that's what they looked like, too small to be section D's, too big to be section b's, although they might have been ...anyway, both in Pelhams with two reins. One was being very quietly ridden - the other, i cringed. The winner of that class was neither of those, but a nice palomino (slightly darker chestnut than the norm...) Having said that, the quietly ridden one, whilst looking to be on the bit, had a very downhill canter to my eye. and at one point i really cringed as one of them got sooooo overbent....

And then I saw the show championship - 5 winners from other classes. one lady on a Section D, nice horse, but the rider ... I know my ridings pants but she did let the horse down a bit, slumped.

and some of the kids in the earlier class - kick kick kick and of course pony won't move...

But interesting, and warm.

then they all finished, of course, and it was only 5pm... and it was blowing a gale outside... choice between sit in the wagon and freeze or find a sheltered spot and freeze. The wagon only had a view of the hedge.... i thought, partner would come to car park so chose sheltered spot, which wasn't that freezing; partner in fact went to wagon.

wagon will be picked up by vendor at some point and we'll have a discussion tomorrow about what to do. When my mate (it was her fiance who was at home) finally got back and heard, she texted me asking did i want her to tear the cheque up or send it back. She's fuming, but clearly we're going to be able to sort it. she's blaming the person who last used the wagon ..which will be right.

So we went to pub in catterick for dinner and got home about 10 minutes ago.

And of course I had to ring and get someone to do Molly ...ggrrhh..

and of course I hadn't been for shavings, since that was also part of the going home plan....

and when we got in, the elder cat has a very weepy eye. happily, still full of antibiotics from his op the other day (they do a long lasting injection these days) but has clearly scratched it. he's back to the vet tuesday...