Hill House Farm

What a year we have had. 

At the end of May we learnt that Lucy had a rare heart condition that required Open Heart Surgery which she had on 18 June.  We were told to prepare for between 2 -4 weeks in Alder Hey, but she amazed us all by coming out a week after surgery, so we were only in for nine days in the end.  She continues to do well and remains under the expert care of the Cardiac team.  The doctors, surgeons, nurses and all the staff at Alder Hey were fantastic and helped us come through the whole ordeal. 

We have decided to raise some money for Ronald MacDonald House, which is where we were lucky to be allocated a room for the duration of Lucys stay in hospital.  This is run by a charity, so we have got some money raising ideas but at the moment we have a charity collecton box on the hall table for anybody wishing to make a donation. 

Before Lucy was diagnosed we had been busy getting planning permission to replace the three old white stables on the yard with four new ones and to extend our outdoor school to 20m by 60m.  We had the stables ordered to come at the beginning of July so when we were then given the date for Lucys operation on 8th June we were already in the middle of the groundwork, preparing for the arrival of the stables and the concrete base was laid while Lucy was in hospital. 

We had also just ordered some solar panels for the house as we had decided to reduce our CO2 emissions and help the environment as well as hopefully reduce our fuel and electric bill.

The new stables arrived in July and look AMAZING!  We bought them from Scotts of Thrapston and they are extremely well made with top quality timber.  We are really pleased with the completed project. 

Meanwhile the solar panels were put in place on the roof, we have had solar thermal panels to give us hot water and solar pv panels to generate some electricity, and Nick likes nothing better than to watch the electricty meter when it says 'reverse run' as this means we are feeding electricity back into the national grid!!

Then in August we gave the go ahead for the construction of the new outdoor arena to start.  We had to make a decision on which surface to go for, and (as usual) we chose the most expensive surface (semi waxed sand & rubber) which has given a superb finish and is great to ride on.  We are hoping to run some clinics here and guest that bring their horses can have lessons with me if they want while they are staying.