Our favourite show of the year was next up - Horse of the Year yay! My awesome crew this year was made up of Bex, Lucy and Rebekah and it's fair to say - they were AMAZING!! The week went so smoothly with both Tech and I were looked after like royalty. Thanks so much you guys!
Our first test was on Friday so after arriving and settling in on Sunday night, we had a few days to shop (yay!), watch, Tech had a Savvy Touch session with Steve to loosen him up, and we had a couple of tune-ups from Jody Hartstone and Julie Malcolm too. Wow - my two amazing coaches together are a force to be reckoned with!! Tech felt amazing (apart from suffering quite badly with his allergies so was snorting rather a lot poor boy), and I felt like I was riding well too with all of the work Julie has done on my position over the previous few months. I couldn't wait to get our competition underway!
So Friday came around and it was warm up time! Tech always feels amazing after Jody has ridden him, and today was no exception - apart from his snorting! I was feeling quite relaxed and we rode a reasonable test, but it was hard keeping my balance and control with Tech snorting and throwing his head around all the way through it, and that showed with our score at 66%. Still a respectable start to our show considering!
Saturday brought more blue skies for another day of fun in the sun at HOY! Techy felt much better than the day before after giving him a double dose of Eze-Breathe before my warm up, and although he was still a bit snorty, he managed to hold it together for most of our Championship Test and keep his snorts to mini ones, instead of the giraffe-like poses he was giving me the day before. We scored 67.8% yay! Improvement on Friday and I still felt like he had more to give, so it was game on for our freestyle on Sunday.
Now, after our slightly crazy freestyle at Nationals, I'd changed the middle part of our music to something less punchy in the hope Tech wouldn't freak out like he did at Nationals! But I was a bit nervous because we hadn't had any arena familiarisation with the speakers/music truck there or any music playing either, so we double dosed him with Top Stock Detox and Calmer and Bex was allowed to stand behind the speaker with Tech during one of the tests to make sure he was ok. Well - we needn't have worried! The Top Stock did the trick and he was literally stood with his head on the speak having a bit of a snooze haha!
Bex did a fab job of warm up (mine and Jody's tests clashed that day so Bex took over warm up duty) and Techy was feeling great. I did my warm up, the bell went and in we go. Um, hello... wake up Tech! He was super relaxed - a bit too much haha! But despite the lack of activity, we somehow managed to be quite a way ahead of our music at the end of my test where we come up the centreline for our final halt, so I had to think on my feet and we threw in a halt and rein back before we carried on back on our music. Nope it wasn't the best rein back in the world and we only did 3 steps but hey - it's all learning experience!!
So we survived another HOY with some good feedback from the judges and lots of laughs along the way. Just the way I like it!
I just want to make a huge shout out to my amazing crew who work so hard for me and Tech and make everything so much fun and so enjoyable. I know everything is in safe hands with you guys and it means I can totally focus on my test and doing the best I can with Tech in the arena. I absolutely couldn't do any of it without you so thank you SOOOO MUCH guys!! You are the best!!
A huge thanks to my sponsor team too who play such a massive part in keeping Tech and I in top condition to be able to perform at our best.
And last but not least, huge thanks to my fantastic coaches who have put so much time and effort into improving both me and Tech - it's making so much difference and I can't wait to see our next steps together!