Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year Break! Team Tech managed to squeeze in a few lessons with Jody and Julie so our training was ticking along nicely and we were gearing up well for our first ever visit to Auckland Manukau Dressage Group in a few weeks time. I've always wanted to get up to Clevedon for the annual Dressage Festival and this year I was lucky enough to be able to pull a crew together to make it happen. So on Thursday we loaded up and set off for Auckland for the Shirley Watts Memorial Cushionride Dressage Festival.
So after a battle with the tent we finally won and had our home setup for the weekend. Juli took Tech for a walk around the arena area before dinner and he seemed pretty cruisey in the new place so we were looking forward to a good show.
Friday afternoon rolled around and after Chelsea plaited Tech beautifully and Mum, Juli and Kirsty pasted Tech's legs up with chalk so he was gleaming white, off we set for our first test. It's the first competition I'd taken my new mounting block to and it's already proven it's worth! It was so much easier for both me and my crew to get me on board Tech with the ramp, big 'table' area and perfect height that we'd designed. Yay! :) I rode a conservative test (annoyingly now looking back - should have put my braver pants on!) but Tech was awesome and did everything I asked and we came 4th - happy with that!
Saturday was Team Test day which is usually our best test - but it also brought with it crazy winds arg! Now usually I chicken out of riding in crazy winds because it plays havoc with my balance, and if Tech is spooked by it there's a much higher risk of me falling off than usual. But I didn't want to waste anyone's time by scratching so off we went. I knew I was in safe hands with my supercrew sticking close by and being on high alert in the warm up, even when the side of the arena blew down while we were warming up (poor Chon was in the arena doing her test at the time!). But Tech wasn't phased so that filled me with confidence. We rode a good test and pulled out a 2nd place - YAHOOO!!!!!!!!!! So proud of my cow pony and FANTASTIC crew for getting us through it in such yuk weather <3
We watched the freestyles in the evening which is always fun and inspirational. Our freestyle was the next morning and I was looking forward to riding to my new music again! BUT there was a huge storm forecast for overnight, with heavy winds and rain so we made the decision to pack the tent up and sleep in the float and car that night. We timed it just right - everything was packed away and we'd moved the car and float around to the stock yards to get a bit of protection. Literally the moment I'd pulled the handbrake up the rain started, and it didn't stop until about 4 or 5am. Mum and I slept in the float and Juli slept in the car and I'm so glad we made that decision! The whole float was rocking around in the wind and the rain was so heavy on the roof, but we were safe and dry in our tin can home for the night thank goodness!
We had an early start Sunday morning because we had to move out of the stock yards before the Sunday market stall holders turned up at 6am to set up, so at 5.45am Mum jumped in the car and moved us back around to the yards with me still in bed in the float (but awake!) and Juli still sleeping soundly in the passenger seat next to her hehe!! Then it was up and at 'em to get ready for our last test.
Once again, my supercrew were there every step of the way, and rode a pretty good freestyle (with a nice pirouette too yay! Good boy Techy :) ) and came 3rd, which placed us 3rd overall in the Para Championship. I was so stoked and very proud of our efforts in a new place, with crazy weather to contend with too. I'm so lucky to have such a fab team and amazing pony to make it all possible. Thank you all SOOOO much!
Now to prep for Nationals in a couple of weeks time - the season is really heating up now!