How many IWRC members does it take to load Scooby??

On 5 March, you are not expecting to chisel the frozen hailstones from your windscreen with a Morrisons loyalty card but that's what I had to do before I could even get to the farm at stupid o'clock, 5.15am to be precise! With the lorry loaded, frozen tack locker and living doors de-iced but still frozen solid, we headed off to Sparsholt College.

For those of you who have never been, Sparsholt is always cold, in fact it's really, really cold - still didn't stop me walking around in a t-shirt for some of the day!

Mine and Scooby's first test was our individual novice test. This was our first attempt at a novice test so I wasn't expecting too much. But, under the watchful eye of Jessie V, we warmed up really well and went on to score 66.67%. I was so pleased - he felt awesome! Few little areas to work on but aren't there always?

Our next test was our team prelim test. Again, under Jessie's guidance, he warmed up really well and was not phased by the scary banners, galloping horses in the fields nearby though the ducks flying over were a little scary! Into the arena we headed. Not wanting to let the team down, we tried really hard! The test felt great and again, I was really pleased! I was over the moon to see we scored 71.20% and would have finished 7th out of 21 starters.

With the senior team finishing 10th out of 21 teams, we had had a great day. So great in fact that Scooby did not wish to go home and instead, preferred to stare lovingly at the world around him from halfway up the lorry ramp, refusing all sorts of treats and encouragement to go in the box! After a long, and I mean long, battle of wills, he went in and I never heard a peep from him all the way home!

Thank you so much to the IWRC for selecting us to go, thank you to Amy Webster for the use of 'Ivy', her trusted lorry, thank you to Jessie and Sarah for their help in my lessons and thank you to everyone for their help at the end of the day! Hopefully we'll get to represent the club again!

And in answer to the question, how many IWRC members does it take to load Scooby, it's takes a grassy verge, a whole senior team, their helpers, a junior team member, 4 car park stewards, 2 Sparsholt College students and a car park full of spectators! No prizes for guessing who's going to lorry loading brat camp!