SJ, Scraps & Belated Birthday Gifts

The CSI de Luxembourg was on from Thursday 7th to Sunday 10th. Myself and some yard friends went along for the Saturday & Sunday afternoons - having not been to see this comptetion before I was wonderfully surprised by the great layout (think huge tent with varied equine shopping), large jumping arena, seating area, variety in choice of food & beverages and all very nicely priced, IMO anyway!
I did indulge in a small spot of shopping and got Kika a belated birthday present today of a leather headcollar with her registered name engraved on a plaque...pics below.

Before that however here are just three I snapped this afternoon. We were very lucky with the weather, it wasn't a scorcher (thankfully for my fair Irish skin), yet it wasn't too cloude or at all wet all afternoon - it was pretty darn perfect!
The show suprised me by how multi-cultural it was, there were the usual Lux, Belgian, German riders...Kevin Staut came from France (if memory serves he won the European Champhionships a few years back and is a familiar face in the French Nation Cups teams of recent years), unfortunately I missed the chance to snap a photo of him!
There were however riders from the USA, UK, Ireland, Russia, Brazil, Haiti, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Turkey & a Ukraine rider won today's Grand Prix!

Here are just three photos I snapped, sorry if quality poor - (a) I wasn't on the rail & (b) as always, photos all taken on my camera phone (so no zoom)!

Irish Rider - Alan Kelly & Picoline

Swedish Rider - Angelie Von Essen & Carrento Ztar

Luxembourg Rider - Charlotte Bettendorf  & Kiwi du Gibet

It was a wonderful way to spend the weekend. The next really big equine event in Luxembourg is towards the end of September a 2 week extravaganze of show jumping followed by dressage...hoping to get myself there to watch!

Here are some more photos of Kika's belated Birthday present - which wasn't initially on the cards, but when i saw it i couldn't come home without it...so here is her first personalised leather headcollar!

I mentioned "Scraps" in the title...I may have mentioned that I was giving Kika friday off and i took myself off to the cinema with some friends from work, so i didn't see herself till saturday evening after having spent the afternoon at the show. Brought her in and set about grooming her, she had splotches of something all across her back - it looked like drops of something - upon closer inspection (aka a whiff) it appeared to be some sort of fertiliser! How she managed that is a mystery to me!
I also unfortunately discovered that she appeared to have been somewhat in the wars with scrap marks decorating her backside & hindlegs - not shocking as she's living outside...these things happen. It was not a fresh wound (meaning they'd presumably been arguing on the friday) but there was a bit of heat in it and it was a little swollen on her thigh above her hock. Gave her a bit of a walk and a trot, decided with some input from L on the ground who'd offered to give us a hand/lesson that she wasn't 100% so cold hosed her for 20mins and popped her back out.
Snapped this photo this evening before giving her a loose lunge - walk and a teensy tiny bit of trot this evening, before again cold hosing her for 20mins and popping her back outside.

She has a few other scrapes on the inside of her other hind leg, but the bit of heat was concentrated in this area...before you ask - yes it is the same side (other leg) that she damaged towards the end of May last year...
Bless her, I think she is also in heat as both yesterday and today she would call out for her field buddies while tied for cold hosing and "working" (she didn't really work, mostly walk with a small bit of trot) - she was also a bit tucked up behind which would be another indicator - normally she wouldn't be very vocal at all...Will keep an eye on her and see how we get on. Her hind leg was less swollen today than yesterday and there was less heat in it, shall cold hose again tomorrow and see how we get on...