We rode three grade 1a tests over the weekend, and we improved all our scores on our last competition to finish on a new personal best for our musical freestyle of 67%. I'm so happy with how we performed, and Tech was just a star throughout the whole weekend. One of the international judges, Myra Friend, commented on how suited Tech and I are and what an awesome horse he is, and she could see he really listens and tries hard for me. It was an amazing feeling that such a highly respected and experienced judge felt compelled to share such positive and encouraging thoughts with me. She told me she would love to take Tech home with her! I want to say a big thank you to both Myra and Kyli for judging this weekend. Their constructive comments on all my test sheets will be scrutinised and worked hard on to help me and Tech keep going in the right direction and improving our scores!
The competition brought riders together from all over the North Island, as well as Grade 2 rider Francis Dick and her horse Oxford Belle from Nelson, to compete in the first equestrian event to be held during the Paralympic NZ National Championships. It was a great turnout and really nice to catch up with the other riders again. I went along with the intention of improving our results on our last competition, and we did that whilst also scoring our first ever 8 for one of our halts which is just awesome! It really shows that Tech and I are working well together and our training is going well. It's just another small step towards our ultimate goal of competing at the 2016 Paralympics and bringing home a medal for New Zealand!
I would like to send out a huge thank you to my support crew. I have the most fantastic team around me and I appreciate you all so much! My travelling team this time was made up of my husband Darren, my parents and my rider/groom extraordinaire Becky. Riders in my grade are allowed to have a warm up rider for 20 minutes to stretch the horse out and loosen him up, before I get on and warm up ourselves and then ride our test, and that's where Becky comes in! We've learned so much during this competition weekend, especially about the best warm-up schedule for Tech so that he's supple and relaxed for me, but not too 'worn in' so it's hard for me to keep him active during my test. It's a very fine line and Becky is doing a great job figuring it all out for me!
I feel so lucky to have such fantastic support. I also want to send out a huge thank you to my team of sponsors: Farmlands Te Puna, JLT Insurance, Equip Outdoors, Savvy Touch and Blue Mist Equine Veterinary Centre. I really appreciate the encouragement and support you are providing us. Without you I couldn't do what I'm doing so a big thank you to all of you!
So what's next for us this season? I'm hoping to compete in some local events over the summer, and will be training hard with my coach Betty Blundell so we can improve our scores again at the next big Para Equestrian events in March; the Para Equestrian National Championships, then Horse of the Year the following week.
Tech and I have come so far in such a short space of time, and I'm really excited about what the future holds for us in the world of para equestrian!
Watch our Championship Test and Freestyle Test from this competition on my YouTube channel.