Carly Millbank

Carly's yard Flooded in Summer storms

What A Nightmare!

Well what a month it has been for us.  Unfortunately we had a bit of a disaster.  On the night of the 14th June we where flooded.  Our house, yard and field went under - in places it was waist high!  Luigi and Frieda were trapped in the field and had to be rescued by our neighbours.  During the evening the water continued to rise until it was so deep the horses had to be evacuated from their stables with the help of the fire brigade.  All 5 horses were loaded on to the lorry for the evening and taken to higher ground.  Thank God all of the horses behaved as the lorry was borrowed from a friend of ours, Ivan Camargo - many thanks to him!

The next morning we awoke to a scene of utter devastation, all our perimeter fencing had been lifted up by the current of the water and washed away.  My set of jumps had floated away and all my rugs were damaged.  The water got so high that my two travelling tack trucks were completely filled up with water (with most of my show tack in as we were due to be going to East of England Show).  Unfortunately we never got to the show due to a major clean up operation!  We also had to miss Hickstead and Arena UK which I am annoyed about as we had all worked so hard to prepare the horses.  Never mind - at least none of the horses or us were injured in the flooding.  Everything else can be fixed or replaced!

I would like to thank Dengie for promptly replacing my damaged feed - my horses where immensely grateful!

Due to the lack of shows the horses have benefited from some rather intense training at home.  Luca and Whinny are feeling on excellent form and the break from a few shows will have done them no harm at all.  Deano has had to have a little time off as he pulled a shoe off in the field and then decided it would be a good idea to stand on it!  He is now back into work and ready to contend some 5 year old classes.  Luigi has been sold so all the best to him and his new rider!  Frieda has come on in leaps and bounds and is really beginning to show some great potential.  A new horse has arrived for me to ride - a lovely 4 year old by Concord.  I broke him last year for his owner and now he has returned to start his BSJA career.  Let's hope he is a good one!

The quest to find a new HGV lorry continues, in between riding, mucking out and trying to rebuild our house and stables I have been travelling the length and breadth of the UK trying to find a suitable lorry.....no such luck yet!

Hopefully next time I write we will have been to some shows and all of the hard training would have paid off in the form of rosettes and more championship qualifications - otherwise my horses will think they have been given early retirement!

Carly