Our 2018 season came to an close in fairly dramatic style at the Lemieux National Para Dressage Championships. The weather was a little wild to say the least with high winds gusting to 47mph. That in itself wouldn’t have been an issue for Winnie and I as we ride in those conditions often in the UK, but we don’t usually have 4 huge Lemieux flags at the end of our arena making huge cracking noises and a dancing marquee. We already know that Winnie is a fabulous Para horse who definitely looks after me in tricky situations but she was just incredible and somehow held it together – well almost.
Leonie walked around the arena with me as we always do and then she filtered off ready to get into position to call the test for me. I did my usual preparation to enter at A on the centreline and then suddenly a huge gust of wind came and whipped through the flags like an explosion and at the same time the dancing marquee lifted up in front of us and slammed down. Winnie grew to about 19hh and starting to tremble and then the bell went. I couldn’t get the right angle as she was not happy to have the flags behind her so we entered the arena at an angle and the judge at C rightly marked us down for it, we continued through the test but shaved off a few corners up by A and the monster flags but I am so proud of how she kept going for me even though she had had a real fright. Our halts were all square and our 8m circles on point, the judge at C cost us the win as she could see our shaved off bits but we came a very close 2nd again to the much more experienced horse. We really wanted to do the ridden prize giving but by then it was raining and the gusts were coming quicker so we had to abandon it as it wasn’t safe for either of us or Leonie who was now hanging on to a sideways Passaging Winnie (showing some skills). I of course loved it but it is so easy for me to forget just how disabled I am and it was the correct decision to get me off quickly, I could not have held her if Leonie had let go. We had so many people who dropped everything to come and help us even though they didn’t know us, and had clearly never helped a disabled person before as they always treat me like an unexploded bomb!, but the horse world comes together when a fellow rider needs help and they all rallied to get me across the arena without crutches or scooter and me shouting “I haven’t fallen off” to on lookers.
Our Winter has since been all about training and preparing ourselves for the World Class selection trials, something which has been my goal from day one. Winnie has been on top, top form and we went along to the ridden assessment day full of confidence. The day came and Leonie and I warmed up under the watchful eye of one of the selectors before going in to the assessment with a List 1 judge Sarah Leitch and World Class Coach Ferdi Eilberg. I rode the test and have to say Winnie took me a little by surprise, she was flying, I however let most of her power out of the front door but we took some advice from Ferdi and redid the elements he thought could be better and we nailed it. 72%+ our highest score from Sarah and under a lot of pressure – woohoo!
The next few weeks were torture waiting to hear if we had done enough to be selected for the much coveted programme, I didn’t know when we would know either as we were told it would be mid -December. I now know how Charlie felt waiting to hear if he had won a golden ticket to the chocolate factory, we knew there were only 7 places and 17 horse and rider combos and throughout the 2 days I kept finding out who had won a place, by the end of day 1 there were 2 places left, by the morning of day 2 there was 1 place left. Now, even though I live in a city our mail is rubbish and we are lucky if we get it by mid-afternoon, so I resigned myself to the fact that I would no doubt find out that I hadn’t got the golden ticket from the last lucky rider that had. I opened my laptop and started work when an email dropped in that I didn’t recognise so instantly thought work, I was wrong it was from the BEF and its said “Many Congratulations” We had done it! The next few days were a whirlwind of excitement and happy tears for Leonie and I and more followed as we told our Home Team, it is so lovely when everyone involved feels it. As a Grade 1 I need a lot of support and we are lucky to have built a really special team.
So 2019 has got off to a flying start with Winnie on top form and some fabulous days at home and away with the World Class GBR Squad and some exciting sponsors coming onto Team Unicorn. In my next blog I will share some very exciting news and introduce you to my sponsors.
