Donnabella is now in Quarantine in England, where she will spend the next 3 weeks before flying back to Australia.
She is one of 39 horses that are flying to Australia on the 20th of January. Most of the horses are young Thoroughbreds, but there are also 9 Gypsy Cobs! Apart from Donnabella there is one other Warmblood travelling to Australia, also a bay mare, and her name is Belladonna, very confusing! Most of the horses are quite young ranging from a weanling to 7 year olds, and then there is Donnabella at 14! The grooms tell us she is much easier to handle then some of the weanlings and yearlings that have not been handled.
The horses a being looked after by a groom named Libby from Queensland, and she will also be with them in Sydney. She seems familiar, but I think it is just the Australian accent!
In England Donnabella will go on the walker twice a day, but I think when she gets to Sydney she will just spend the three weeks in a stable.
Mum and I will fly home on New Years Eve, and will be home on the 2nd of January. Its going to be a long six weeks without Donnabella and i’m looking forward to the 13th of February when she gets out of Quarantine!
It has been a great trip, I have learnt so much and have had a wonderful time. Thankyou to NSWIS, Dressage NSW, Hutcheon and Pearce Cowra, Cowra Machinery Centre, Young Dressage Association, Central West Dressage Group, NCB Bellamys, Cowra Bowling Club, Kaleen Trust and Lachlan Fertilizers who all helped finance my trip to Europe. Also thankyou to everyone who bought raffle tickets or made donations, every dollar helped.
A big thankyou goes to Roger Fitzhardinge for flying over to help me at Frankfurt and Mechelen and organising training with Arjen Teeuwissen. It was great to have Roger at these huge shows with me and we had a great time.
Another big thankyou goes to Simon Kale for flying with Donnabella and making sure she arrived safe and sound. It was reassuring to have a friend who had flown with horses before looking after my special horse.
And a huge thankyou goes to my Family. My Mum left the rest of our family and travelled to Europe with me and did most of the organising for the trip. My Dad stayed home and ran the farm without Mum in the our busiest time of the year, usually we are all driving tractors all day and night, and i’m sure he was very stressed without Mum and I there. But my brother, at 14, organised to have the month off school, to help Dad run the farm. Even though they were busy on the farm, Dad and Matt found time to look after the horses, and even put them in the stables when the farm was in flood.
So thanks again to everyone for making this trip possible and have a Happy New Year!
Megan 
i hope you and donnabella hade a graet time you did grate over there