May 2009

I am beaming from ear to ear… I love eventing!! Before I talk to you guys about the highlight of my season so far (Badminton) I will let you know how everything kicked off this year and how all my boys are going!

My season started at Isleham and Tweseldown. Isleham was my first run on my new ride Balloo IV and I was really excited to see how we would fair as a partnership. He went well at Iselham and jumped double clear which I was pleased with and because it was only novice I decided to take him to Tweseldown as well to gain as much experience as possible. He jumped another double clear and started to give me a really good feeling so my sights were then set on getting as many OI runs under my belt as possible with him to consolidate our partnership. I also had Pardon Me II (P) and Society Spice (Riz) at Tweseldown in the OI for their first run. Riz was a superstar as usual and was feeling very fresh for the dressage but did manage to contain himself. P on the other hand was feeling very fresh but really really really did not manage to contain himself! I was close to tears in my dressage test, it was one of those very humbling moments when you very much hit the earth with a thud and I have never been so close to retiring in the dressage phase in my life! He was so excited my best attempts were just to try and steer shapes that were partially recognisable as movements to a judge, but the gait that we were in really had no relevance to what the dressage test had described! Oh well, horses are horses and they then jumped and went XC very well so I can forgive him for a little ‘Spring Freshness’ now and again!

Next stop was Aldon where I had Balloo, P and Riz in the OI U21. The previous year I won this class with P and was runner up with Riz so I was hoping to defend my title. Balloo jumped another faultless double clear which I was thrilled with however I still had work to do with him on the flat. He had been good in the dressage phase with his previous riders so there was no excuse for me not to be getting good marks too, so following Aldon I blitzed the dressage and managed to find the key to him (to my great relief)! P’s performance at Aldon was a vast improvement on Twesledown he scored 29 and finished 5th with a few time faults as I ran him slower due to hard ground. Mr Riz however was Mr Cool, he managed to do a test of 19.1 and went on to win the class! That was my first test in the sub 20’s and I hope there will be more to come as it was a very nice feeling!

After Aldon I had Somerley where I took Balloo again and also took Junior for his first run of the season. Junior ran a lot in 2008 which was his first season and ran from intro up to intermediate level so we gave him a longer rest than the others over the winter and so brought him back into competition slightly later. Junior was fantastic, he is a real star for the future; he led after dressage and jumped double clear however he is a real trier and so I wanted to let him settle cross country and really relax for his first few runs so literally cantered round so that he would actually breathe and enjoy himself. Balloo was improving all the time as well, he was in the CIC** and did a much better test, scoring 46.4 which left him in 5th overnight. He then had a very uncharacteristic two fences down which was very annoying considering the better dressage marks but these things happen and he just touched them so it was unlucky. He gave me a great feeling XC though and was placed.
Balloo had a couple of weeks to rest after his busy start to the season while I took Riz and P to Burnham Market to compete in the CIC***. This was to be Riz’s last run before Badminton so I was praying nothing silly would happen. Fortunately it didn’t, he did a lovely test of 49.2 but had two down and went clear XC. These two fences down were my fault so I wasn’t worried, he gets quite keen sometimes and is prone to crossing his jaw a little when he wants to get going and he did this to a couple of fences which meant we got a little close. P behaved well too, his test was nothing special but he did behave, although it was tense, I was pleased although I thought the mark was a little harsh. At the end of the day, I know that P is capable of producing a really super test when he is settled and when it really matters, so the beginning of the season is really about keeping a sane head on him. He jumped beautifully however, and felt absolutely world class cross country.
The next weekend was a little different from my standard eventing weekend. Actually that is a MASSIVE understatement, it was manic!! Mum and I were at South of England on the Saturday where my sister was competing, we then went up to Birmingham that night with Balloo to compete in the British Open Indoor Cross Country. He was a really good boy he jumped all the show jumps clear which were quite big and then went really well cross country but just had an unfortunate run out at an angled house where I think he struggled to read what to do, he never locked on at all and I think having all the crowds behind the fences he didn’t know where to look! We then slept for 2 hours in the lorry before leaving at 3:30am to come back to South of England where I had Junior in the Novice and my sister finished competing in the OIU21. My sister and I both came 5th and I was very pleased with the way Junior was coming on.

I then had Belton which was my last event before Badminton. Balloo was competing on the Saturday in the OIU21 and did a cracker of a dressage test to score 27.3 and then jumped clear. So I had my blood up cross country to try to secure a win. He was going beautifully and I mean really foot perfect up to about the third last fence which were two brushes on a turn. He had lost a shoe half way round the course and so when I turned between the brushes we slipped all over the place and so didn’t end up making the turn for the second brush. I was GUTTED as I so wanted to get the win to put Balloo in the selectors minds for the Europeans, they had seen what had happened though which was reassuring. I was equally gutted for not getting the rosette for his owner Caroline as well, as she is so supportive and I really want to be a good jockey for her and produce some results, so I can only hope the ribbons start coming soon! P also did his dressage for the AU25 on the Saturday too and did a really lovely test scoring 31.8 which was in the top few. I also used Belton to combined train Riz which was good to get him out again. Sunday was a horrible day for everyone in our sport following Ian’s fatal accident. Ian was one of the most friendly, full of life people you could meet and he was treasured by everyone who knew him. I was only lucky enough to meet him last year at Boekelo but I am glad I did meet him because when ever you met him or saw him he was sure to brighten up your day. The event continued and I decided to run P, who went really well, although I didn’t run him fast. He came 7th. It’s extremely hard when things like that happen but Ian, like the rest of us, evented at his own risk and he competed because he loved it.

The next two weeks were spent preparing for Badminton and quite frankly they were just two weeks of me being very excited and trying to psychologically get focused so that I was in a frame of mind to do my best, I COULD NOT WAIT!!!

Badminton

WHAT A WEEK!!! Where do I start? Badminton 2009 has to be one of the biggest, if not THE biggest highlight of my career so far. It was my first CCI**** and it was also Society Spice’s (Riz) first four star. It was very much going to be an unknown quantity, and all I could hope for was that everything would go well but there was never any certainty that it would! I set myself some goals on the months running up to the event. These were to score a dressage in the 40’s; the cross country goal setting was a little more complicated, I decided if he was coping with the course I would of course go for a clear as fast as I could but if he was struggling at all I would bring him home before he lost any confidence; my show jumping goal was obviously to try to go clear but hopefully have no more than one fence down. Without realising I did quite a lot of preparation, psychologically to equip myself fully for all of the questions that Badminton would ask. I can’t tell you how many times I went down the centre line at home, imagining I was in the main arena and that I was going to do the test of my life! I also have to embarrassingly confess I spent many nights, whilst trying to get to sleep, imagining myself galloping out of the start box and over the first fence! I promise you something though, this sounds silly writing this now but I felt so prepared when I was at Badminton and I was so ready for the atmosphere and the crowds that I felt like I had done it a million times before, purely because I had, in my head!!

I was the youngest competitor at Badminton, at the age of 19, and with this came a lot of publicity and a lot of time commitments at the event. I made the most of it though and took part in any type of media I could, I am so hungry to become one of the best now that anything that would get my name out there seemed very valuable to me!

When we arrived at Badminton we got Riz settled into the amazing stables before I took him for a hack around the park! We had our own name plate on the door and on XC day were given our own personalised XC numbers all of which I have to admit I have kept as souvenirs!

One of the first jobs on Wednesday was to go and meet Caroline, the owner of Moloh, who had very kindly agreed to lend me two trot up outfits for Badminton. When I saw the shop I was very excited! Caroline picked out two stunning outfits for me which were both beautiful. I felt very honoured to be wearing the clothes and felt like a million dollars! Fortunately I managed to keep them clean and slobber free, a mean feat considering Riz’s efforts to bite me at the trot up!

My dressage was on Friday afternoon which suited me as I had Thursday and Friday morning to watch tests and make sure I new the movements of the test down to the last hoof print! I thought Riz might light up when I went into the arena and then get a little bit tense but I think he knew it was an important one and was so tuned into me I couldn’t have asked him to be any more obedient! What a perfect pony! He did do a beautiful test only spoilt by a couple of mistakes but hey, you very rarely get a foot perfect test so I was ecstatic; as I walked out of the arena I saw I had achieved my goal by scoring 48.3 and that was a great feeling! Overnight my score left me in 12th place which I was very pleased with.

Having walked the XC I thought that it was big but I was at Badminton so I knew to expect that. I could visualise myself jumping every fence clear but I still wasn’t sure what Riz would make of it. I felt surprisingly calm watching people on the big screen all morning and felt assured that the course was jumping well on the whole. When I got on Riz it was like putting on an old pair of boots and we were as much of a team as we ever had been so whatever that afternoon was to bring we would both be trying our best! I can barely remember coming out of the start box now or for that matter the feeling that I had going round. Having had 19 years running up to the competition I had imagined how the cross country would feel as big and scary as it had always looked… however no, trust old Riz as per usual seemed to produce the goods and made it feel no harder than an OI and that is the honest truth, I felt so settled going cross country and consequently we had a really comfortable confidence-giving round. I was going as fast as I could and went all of the straight routes; Riz hasn’t got a massive gallop and isn’t as much of a blood horse as some others there. He started to get tired towards the end but kept jumping beautifully. We came in clear with 10.8 time faults but to be honest, this year, my first year I couldn’t have cared less about a few time faults. Sure it would have been nice to stay on a clean sheet but I got him home happy and in one piece and we were full of confidence to come back and up the pace a little bit more! Overnight our time faults dropped us to 20th place so to still be in the top 20 after XC day and to be jumping Sunday afternoon not morning felt like a great achievement to me.

I will be honest, Sunday morning I thought he might come out a little stiff having just galloped a 10 minute course over four star fences, like you would expect any horse to do. Having this in mind I took him for a hack that morning but I was wasting my energy because he was as fresh as a daisy and felt as loose and supply as the day we arrived! He trotted up as fresh as he felt and so we then had the morning to watch jumping. The course was causing quite a few problems, there seemed to be a couple of bogie fences but I think probably every single fence fell at some stage that day so there were no places to relax! I had to parade in the main arena about 5 minutes before I actually entered the arena for my show jumping. Riz found this extremely exciting and nearly ran over a couple of camera men in the process following a complete loss of steering (and this was at a walk/ jog, what hope did I have to show jump!) I then gave him a few fences to warm up before we went in. He jumped his heart out for me and really couldn’t have tried any harder we had the third fence down which was the first big square parallel which would be the most tricky type of show jump for him. He actually nearly jumped me off a few fences late, coming out the double. He was trying so hard he literally catapulted himself over it and I did some sort of interesting flying moves and was then nearly in a position where I would be looking at grass but fortunately didn’t actually come off… very embarrassed though, I was worried people would think what is this stupid girl doing, her horse is jumping yet she is trying to fall off!! Anyway, I finished 22nd in the end which I was still pleased with, had I come up from a lower placing to 22nd I would have been thrilled but when you move down places it is always frustrating. This was very much made up though by winning the prizes for the best placed British rider under the age of 25 and the prize for the best first timer! One thing I would say though is that having started so high after dressage and still having gone clear XC with one fence down gave me incentive because I know next year I could jump double clear and go faster so this is what I am already starting to focus on! Roll on May 2010 and fingers crossed we are both there in one piece again, because I think I might have a serious, serious four star horse sleeping on my yard tonight in Riz!!