Leap of Faith.

Bramham Horse Trials today! We all got up very early and were buying our tickets on the gate at 8.30am. It was definitely worth it; the queue was already quite long. We started off watching the showjumping, and I got to see Pippa Funnell on Or Noir de la Loge. I had a poster of her up on my wall when I was a horse-mad-12-year-old. William Fox-Pitt (another poster-subject for me 10 years ago) was leading the competition with Chilli Morning when we left, and his second horse was doing OK too.

M is not horsey in the slightest, and it's a bit weird introducing him to it at this point in my life. I went through a stage where horses occupied my every thought - at one point I worked three part-time jobs just to own half of a horse, sharing him with another lady. Now my back is too weak after an injury to ride for long periods, even if I could get myself out of the city to a stables and afford the extortionate prices. The last time I rode I was flat out for the following 48 hours struggling to even sit in a moving car. Going to the gym regularly is helping build strength, though, and if I could start a little at a time, I might one day get back into it.

M didn't know the difference between showjumping and cross-country, so I explained everything I knew, and pointed out which riders were doing well and which weren't counting their strides properly or keeping the impulsion going. We saw two fallers; one not so bad and one that looked extremely painful - but all riders and horses walked away from both. We walked nearly the whole 4 km course, then made our way back to Mum and Dad, who were camped out near the water jump for a picnic. It was gorgeous and sunny and so warm - M and I were both in shorts and t-shirts, what a treat.

Dad twisted his ankle badly last week, but he did well walking round a few more XC fences with us after lunch. This is the Aardvark Safaris Trakhner; the stretch required of the horse is incredible - and all the riders were taking it at full pelt.

By the time we headed back to the car, we'd been at the event for six sunshine-filled, horse-tastic hours. We'd drunk a lot of Pimm's, beer and Kopperberg and M and I were both sleeping like little kids in the back seat by the time we hit the motorway. Mum made steak frites for dinner and we played a game of Scrabble before bed. Perfect day!

There's been a film-photography-induced gap in my Blips for a couple of weeks - I'm picking them up tomorrow so I shall fill a few blanks then! In the meantime, there are many back-blips...