Winnie and I kicked off our 2017 season by winning the British Dressage Silver National Championships, winning this title meant we were ready for the Gold level and indeed we were qualifying for the Nationals at Stoneleigh in just two outings, we went to Stoneleigh very much the underdogs and danced our way to become Reserve Champions less than 1% behind the winner riding a very experienced horse.
We were selected to represent England at the home internationals for a second year again, our scores boosting the team into 2nd place, Winnie and I retaining our title of highest scoring rider of the weekend although that year there was no prize.
Our success through the levels has also meant that we have now been selected to represent Great Britain on three occasions. It is a real honour to wear the Union Flag on your jacket and saddle cloth and becoming an International Para athlete was a dream when I started, to have achieved it in such a short time has been amazing.
In 2017 we were really not prepared for the step up to International competition and although I loved it I couldn’t help but be disappointed with my scores which were in the mid to high 60s and not what we were used to getting. We compete over 3 days at an International and the first two days were difficult we just didn’t have it right and my body played up in the heat, I simply didn’t have the right level of fitness, I didn’t know how to eat well for competition and Winnie wasn’t right either. We were 3rd on the last day (freestyle day riding to music) and I was so pleased even though I knew we could still have done so much better.
It was clear that we needed to make a few changes in 2018. My acceptance onto the BEF Excel Squad meant that I now had access to the GBR squad professionals and it has made a world of difference to me. It has not only helped me to eat well with advice from the dietician James but has also given me the confidence to change things that had stopped working and so with their support I made the difficult decision to move yards and trainer, something I didn’t do lightly but Winne had started to become tense when ridden by anyone other than me and become a little withdrawn in her surroundings in the hustle and bustle of a busy yard.
I met Leonie Brown from Daneswood Dressage and really liked her setup and training techniques, it was a bit of a gamble really but I adore Winnie and she owes me nothing so I decided to put her interests in the fore and make the move. It couldn’t actually have been any better, Leonie is just fabulous with Winnie and we have stripped everything back, she is a great horse trainer but also a brilliant human one, not many people have threatened to take me into a field and leave me there if I keep screwing up my halts. As a disabled person, it is so important to me not to be treated like an idiot, my body doesn’t work but my brain does and if I get it wrong I need to be told. The move came 2 weeks before we competed at the Gold Semi Finals where we came 2nd behind Paralympian Sophie Christianson on the 1st day and 3rd on the second day qualifying for the Nationals in September and only 5 weeks before we competed for GBR in July this year. If you follow my FB page DGParadressage you will see that we smashed it scoring 70%+ each day so the results speak for themselves it was the right decision. Winnie was like a different horse and I got most of my halts, so remained out of the field and more importantly, we did it with a great mix of humour and professionalism.
