Horse of the Year has arrived! The float and ute were packed to the brim, and Bex and I headed to the paddock to pick up Ira. As we drove down the hill I could see a horse tied up at the yards with a fancy rug on... I had to do a double take before I realised it was Ira in a brand new rug with his name on it! My awesome friends had got together and organised a gorgeous fleece rug from Canter for Cancer (Thanks so much Nicki!), personalised with the Para NZ logo and both mine and Ira's names on the side! How lucky are we to have such lovely friends!!
After lots of hugs and a few photos, we loaded Ira onto the float, and Bex piloted us down to Hastings like a star. Ira had a walk out when we got there which he found very exciting - with lots of leaps and bounds on the end of the lead rope, little monkey! Then Bex set up our camp, and we were ready for a fun week ahead. Bring it on!
HOY is always such a huge event, but I've never seen the truck park so jam-packed before. We were lucky that we were able to park outside Ira's yard with our good friends and fellow paras, Nicola and Sally Essex. Unfortunately the polo grounds where we can school and ride weren't open until Tuesday, so we were restricted to hand-walking Ira around the truck park and Bex hacking him around at walk on Monday afternoon. Well, after being stuck in the float for 4 and a half hours on Sunday then yarded for a lot of the day on Monday (apart from a few hand walks out), Ira had a rather large spring in his step and found everything rather exciting again! He gave Bex a very bouncy ride around the truck park! Needless to say I didn't get on - I thought I would give him another day to settle in before I had my first saddle time at HOY!
Tuesday was our first ridden session, and all the paras headed over to the polo grounds together. I drove over in my wheelchair while Bex rode a still-very-bouncy Ira over! We both thought he would settle with some good work - the first we'd been able to get into him for 4 days, but Ira had other ideas... 15 mins into his workout he threw in a series of bucks and gave Bex a flying lesson, then proceeded to take off around the polo grounds bucking and calling out like a crazy fool, while the stewards tried to catch him! Naughty boy!! We had to get the medics to check Bex out (as per HOY protocol) much to her disdain - she just wanted to get back on and finish his workout nicely! But no - it's a long way to fall from a leaping 16.3hh horse, so Bex was given orders to rest up. We gave Ira a lunge later that night and made a plan for the next day. It was very out of character for him to act like that, so I wanted to make sure everything was ok with him before we did anything else.
Wednesday morning we got the vet to Ira to give him a full check over to make sure he wasn't sore anywhere. He passed all the checks and full trot up with flying colours, and we all agreed it was likely his behaviour was due to being over-excited in a new place, with big atmosphere, after being yarded for two days and with not enough work. After a chat with Rosie (Ira's owner) too, we made a plan of action and I headed to the BetaVet stand to get some Steady Steed minerals to help Ira recover his sensible brain! We were due for arena familiarisation on Wednesday afternoon, and I was short on crew with Bex being under strict orders to stay resting up at camp for the day! My lovely friend Chelsea organised for Abbey Thompson to come and give Ira a workout for me before arena familiarisation, so after a quick lunge, Abbey jumped on and I'm pleased to say Ira was perfect. It seems he got all his silliness out the day before, and the BetaVet Steady Steed had helped restore his brain function yay! I even managed to get on and have my first ride which restored my confidence in him. I was ready for the competition now!
Thursday afternoon was our first test, and Jody Hartstone was there to warm Ira up for me. He looked amazing floating around the warm-up arena under her expert guidance! But my brain was rather fried from the stress of the last few days, so I took myself away from everyone to focus on the arena and run through my test. Soon it was time for me to get on, so my trusty crew put me on board and Jody started tuning me up. Unfortunately with my head all over the place, I got my timing completely wrong and I got on way too soon, oops! I still had one more rider to go before it was my ride time, and my head felt like it was going to fall off my shoulders where my neck was so sore! But we had to keep going, and thankfully it was soon time for us to head around the arena. Jody was coaching me all the way, and I'm so thankful for her words of advice and encouragement right up to the moment the bell rang. Then it was just Ira and I. And once we were through the arena gate it was game time! I was pretty nervous being in the arena on our own considering the events of the last few days, but I needn't have been. Ira was back to his usual awesome self and we rode a good, albeit conservative, test and the whole team had big smiles on our faces as I came out of the arena! We scored 64% - a solid start for our first HOY test and also our first test in front of an international judge. I just needed bigger brave pants to ask for more forward, but that was to be our goal for our next test.
Friday rolled around and after another fantastic warm up from Jody, I got a bit brave and put the throttle down a tad during our test and although it was a wee bit scary, it felt great and the judges agreed - giving us 67% yahoo!
Our Freestyles were scheduled for Saturday night in the main oval which was a tad daunting... especially since the Pony of the Year class was underway at the same time and we could hear the huge cheers that were going up at the end of each clear round from the warm up ring! But as soon as I got on Ira and we headed down the ramp to the collecting ring beside the oval, I knew we were going to be OK. Ira had his ears on me the whole time, and my crew were stationed all around the arena so I knew they were all there for me if I needed them. It's lucky Jody was with me when the bell rang though, as I forgot to give the music queue and nearly walked into the arena without asking for my music to start oops!! Good job someone had their brain switched on! My music started and we were heading down the centreline, and I started singing to myself to try and calm my nerves. It worked and I enjoyed every second of our test, even with the crowds cheering for the pony of the year in the main arena next door! (I kept telling Ira the cheers were for him as he was being so good whenever they went up!) When my music finished, I had the biggest smile on my face and it was lovely to have friends around the arena cheer us on - Ira seemed to enjoy the attention too! I was stoked to see our score come through - 68.7% yahoo!! We improved every test and I was so proud we got through the Oval to top it off!
I need to send the WORLD'S BIGGEST THANKS to my absolutely amazing supercrew for getting both Ira and I and through the week safely! We even had a few tears after our freestyle Hehe! LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!
And more world's biggest thanks to Rosie Richards for trusting me with your gorgeous boy and giving me the incredible opportunity to have so much fun together.
And finally, a million thanks to the superstar Ira Hayes, who looked after me so well - especially in the Oval, despite everything going on around us!
So that's a wrap from HOY 2020. We were supposed to be going to Nationals next week, but unfortunately it's been cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic, so that's our first season together - done. It's been absolutely amazing, and I've loved every second in the arena with the gorgeous boy Ira Hayes. I can't wait to get back out there again!