So these past couple of days have been way to eventful. Thursday evening Emma and I set off for Oxford since we had Friday off together. We went out on the town thursday night and spent friday visiting with Katherine (cousin) and shopping in oxford. meanwhile all friday there were absolutely torrential downpours, literally like monsoons. Emma's entire front lawn was under water and by early afternoon most of the main highways were shut, stranding thousands of cars in floods and causing everything to be absolutely gridlocked. it took us nearly two hours to do the ten minute drive out of oxford to emma's house in the afternoon. We finally got back to oxford and recieved a call from serena that my competition that was the next day was cancelled due to flooding and that all the roads were in such a state of chaos that we might as well sit tight and get up early in the morning and arrive as close to 7 AM as possible to help muck out. So emma and i stayed in, watched some good ol' HP (sorcerers stone) and got up at 4 30 the next morning to start our drive back north to Hereford. We got a little over half-way there (to Gloucester) and then turned around by the police because everything between hereford and gloucester was flooded. The M-50 was closed with thousands of cars stranded there that had been there all night. It was kinda creepy driving up to gloucester because the closer we got the more deserted cars that were on the side of the road. some of the flooding had gone down because there were areas where the road was absolutely covered in stones and muck but no more water. So once the police had turned us back we called sheepcote and explained the situation and they told us it was fine but had to run because they had to go rescue some of the young horses that were stuck in a flooded field up to their chests. So emma and i returned to oxford around 7 and promptly went to sleep. We got woken up just before 9 by emma's mom dropping the new harry potter book on us. then ten minutes later she came running in saying that Adrianne (one of their broodmares) was foaling so we got up and ran out to the field. Right away we could tell something was wrong because her water hadn't burst and she kept lying down and then getting up again. Emma burst the bag and about a minute later the foal's front feet emerged and then some of the face but the mare was clearly really struggling getting it out and kept retracting it into her. Because of all the flooding no vets were able to come so one vet was dictating to emma's mom on the phone what we should do. Emma and I ended up having to pull the foal out but even as we were pulling it out it's mouth was blue and it only took struggling breaths every minute or so. We finally got it out but it was too late and the poor thing didnt make it. Adrianne was so exhausted she couldnt even get up to check the foal for at least 15 minutes. Once she did i have never seen a more heart wrenching scene as she kept tryting to make it get up and clean it. I had to turn away i couldnt watch anymore. Finally after 4 hours the vet arrived to make sure the mare was ok (which she was, thank god) and explained to us what probably happened. The foal ( a gorgeous colt) was really big and so his chest was too big to breath and he was trapped, plus the combination of the water not bursting meant that when he did try to breath it was liquid he was breathing in. The vet said that even if we had gotten there earlier and had somehow managed to keep him alive, he would have been so severely brain damaged he'd be pretty much useless and probably wouldnt survive anyway because his instincts wouldn't keep him alive through the early phases. Emma had remained so calm and collected through it all but once we returned to the house she absolutely broke down and was hysterical. Emma's mom ( a caterer) had a wedding for 200 people to cater for and so we were all put to work to get things ready for that since there had been a miscommunication about the start time of the reception (it was at 2 30 not 4). Once all that settled we called david and serena and they found us a route down and around most of the flooding, it took us over 4 hours to make the drive with alot of re-routing (using my phenomenal navigating skills). While our oxford ordeal was happening Hayley, who had gone to the badminton dressage championships on Freelancer and she couldnt get home, ater beign on the road from 3 30 PM until 10 30 PM (with freelancer on the trailer) they managed to get to a friends outside of ledbury who had stables and spent the night there. Ledbury was basically an island so they didnt manage to get back to hereford until late afternoon the next day, and they had to go way down south and around the flooded zones. well Kara (head girl) and some of the working students were bitter against us because im not sure they realized how bad the driving was so now this huge drama has erupted between "us" and "them" (im basically staying out of it and am just being very diplomatic about it because i have no hard feelings for anyone). Then david and serena sided with hayley when kara had a go at her so kara was in a really bad mood today and since hayley had the day off so i had to work with kara in the mornign and it was a bit tense but fine. During meals iwould just go to my room and read the new harry potter book (which i just finished and its absolutley amazing) and i think tomorrow night we're going to see the new harry potter movie. so lots of HP.
Friday i leave for holland and i cannot believe i leave so soon! i still feel like ive just arrived. However the weather is so miserable i cannot wait to be home and have a month of proper summer. Since i know that once i return to queens it will basically be cold and wet for the next bajillion months.
Well im going to go watch some more harry potter (emma and i brought back all the movies) and then its off to bed.
ill see many of you in two weeks! be excited!
ps. robyn accepted the queens coaching job which means i need to get my ass into shape...which it very much is not right now, so looks like i have to start running rain or no rain:(
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