Oli Lawrence's latest blog: A driving lesson to forget!

So hopefully you’ve read my introduction and know who I am. I’ve been writing blogs on my website for a while now so you can read the whole history there. But, here’s the present – the latest blog...

"So this is Christmas and what have you done”.... Merry Christmas! For a change I thought I’d start with something a little bit non horse related – driving/learning! Well, my brother Ben was either brave or foolish in the extreme when he offered to come with me in the car when I ‘had a little play’.... Everything was going so well, I could break (and send both of us through the windscreen), accelerate and steer around the dog who seemed intent on telling the world to be afraid.... Then we (oh yes, the royal ‘we’!) decided to do some fancy reversing which was fine until I got near the hedge so, very calmly and cooly applied the break, then shot straight into the hedge.... there was one of those pauses, the silences that last for eternity with just the startled sheep running around. It couldn’t last as Ben burst out laughing and just wouldn’t stop... It ended up to be all fine, all that happened was a bit of dirt got violently scrubbed off the back of the car and I learnt not to have small excitable distractions named Ben sitting next to you..... of course we didn’t mention the car shaped hole in the hedge.

On the horse front it’s all go. Dell’s now in livery to give us access to a huge indoor school and he's getting the hang of what all weather gallops are for – fun, fun, fun... Plus, there’s some exciting developments going on with some new rides coming up – I’ll keep you posted. Last weekend we were off Christmas showjumping and Dell jumped a double clear in the Newcomers.

Dell’s also learning rather quickly that just because something looks a tad strange it doesn’t mean it will eat him. He’s recently been convinced that running water’s full of demons so reckons if he gives it at least 6 feet of air he’ll be safe – poor Dell, once he got used to streams we went and found a river... job done!

Don’t forget to check out the website for the latest blogs or just keep an eye on this page to follow the trials, challenges, success and just ‘some of those moments’ straight from the jockeys mouth!