The horses are coming so you better run!

(Still in English so that my aunt gets her practice ;))

This Saturday I did something very weird, that I have never done before, I went to horse trials! What? Katja, my host mom, is a horse enthusiast, and she goes to these trials every year. She asked if I wanted to go with her, ex-heppatyttö inside of me got excited, so what the hell, let's go! 8am this morning we left Cambridge behind and said hello to Stamford.

Stamford is a small, very English village about 70 mins north from Cambridge. We bought some snacks from local M&S and then headed over to the trials. Above is Katja smiling and the beautiful skyline of Stamford.

I'm 26L poorer now but it was totally worth it! The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials 2012, here I come! The trials were organized on the rich Burghley family's land, hence the name. 

I know absolutely nothing about horses nor riding nor fence jumping, but I really enjoyed watching these trials! It was exciting to see the horses, will they jump or not, will they fall or not.

 All the pictures are taken from pretty far, but I couldn't get any closer, sorry! All the riders were in their 20s, but then this guy was well over 50, what, but then he was of course far better than the others.

Water fences were my favourite! Loved how the water splashed around. They were really exhausting to the horses though, fence-water-hill-fence-water-fence, you could see how they were super tired at the next stop.

The board was full of nonsense to me, but Katja was excited to see how her favorite was doing. She told me later that the trail had been really difficult this year, nearly half of the contestants had dropped off/ got eliminated. 

The Burghley family's gorgeous mansion, still in use. Part of the Pride and Prejudice movie was filmed here ;)

At the finish line we spotted Finland's flag! Wtf, there weren't even any contestants from Finland... It was a heart warming surprise tough! <3 Finland I miss you.

Never thought that I'd one day find myself at horse trials, but it was really fun and definitely an experience. I'd absolutely go again! 

Omistettu heppatyttö_93 Tiiu:lle <3