DEAN SKEATES and CLAIRE CHAMBERS continue their monthly series looking at life at Meacham Stud Competition Yard.

Wow, I can't believe that we have had snow in April.

It's crazy, but it hasn't stopped us from cracking on this month.

Firstly, I would like to send massive congratulations to Kathryn and Steve Caskey.

Kathryn and her parents have Distant Prospect, the former racehorse, on full livery with us, and have done for over a year now. Kathryn had a baby boy the other night, which was wonderful.

We have had a really good month - very busy but successful.

The four-year-old Arrosage Demitri went out for the first time, competing in a Shearwater four-year-old class.

He did a good test, with some very stiff competition in a big class, finishing seventh.

The judges loved him. There was just a little tension from him calling to others, but from a baby we couldn't have expected any more, and owners Sandy and Tony Ware were very pleased with his performance.

He has had a few outings and had a couple of placings since, with some good percentages and positive comments.

So other age classes, here we come!

Vestegarrds Manuell (pictured, right) is on excellent form, winning every time out so far, and collecting those all-important qualifiers.

We are carefully teaching him his changes at home, but are looking to sell him in a few weeks, so anyone who wants a dressage horse to go out and win all the team events, here's your man - fit and ready to go!

Both the boys have been to a friend's place and had a blow-out on the sand track, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's been a long, wet winter, with them having to work on the school every day.

Le Grande Alazan (pictured, top) and Distant Prospect went to a hunter trial, which they flew round, and loved it - and they have another coming up this week. We like to do small hunter trials and fun rides with the jumpers, just to keep them fresh and enjoying their jobs.

We have also made the very hard decision to have our two-year-old colt Meacham Rococco gelded, although he is a pleasure to own. We were not really ready to stand a stallion just yet as our love is in the competition side of it and working with youngsters.

He can now be turned away and backed next year, to carry on in his career.

Although we haven't had much luck selling the 16.2hh pink-papered British warmblood mare or 14.2hh bay allrounder, we hope that going into the summer the market will start to pick up, as it died down quite rapidly over Christmas.

Some very exciting news - we have bought a new lorry which is being built under the careful eye of Charlton Horseboxes, and we can't wait to see the finished thing.

Now we keep calling in taking photos and admiring our new baby as it grows - albeit a four-wheeled one, this time, instead of a four-legged one!

We just need to pick which colour to paint it now - which sounds easy until they put pages and pages of choices infront of you (exciting though).

Seriously, a lorry presents problems. There are various things you need to take into account. First of all, you need to be careful with weight restrictions that have been enforced, as there are quite hefty fines for offenders.

The main problem that we have hit along the way is getting the insurance sorted.

When we first decided to get a lorry, Dean was going to do his HGV as he is over 21. This would then cover from 3.5 tons and above, so we could carry the weight - more horses, equipment, and so on. But the cost of doing this is very high.

With the newer age laws that have come in, if you hadn't passed your test before a certain year, you could only drive up to 3.5-ton and no trailers.

What are the younger generation to do?

It has been very difficult for us.

We have gone down the route of purchasing a 3.5-ton lorry which, by all accounts, is suppose to be the next best thing for youngsters, so they can drive them on car licences and get going earlier, without the cost of doing more tests and, hopefully, the lorry being a little cheaper to run than the bigger horseboxes.

But when you start enquiring about 3.5-ton horseboxes, most insurance companies don't want to know until you are over 21 or 25. So what is going on? How are we as youngsters suppose to get started?

Hopefully, we will have answers next month, when we have resolved the situation ourselves, and can give you more guidance if you're wondering what route to go down, transport-wise.

l If you have queries about horses or tuition, contact Claire on 07849 207219 or Dean on 0774 305 7679, or see www.meachamcompetitionhorses.com.

2:19pm Thursday 17th April 2008

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