6th October 2011

Somehow, I managed to keep it together!

I have just returned from Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) where I had a wonderful time competing in the Express Eventing Championship. Although it didn't go quite as planned it was fantastic to be part of it!

We travelled up to the NEC (in Birmingham) the day before as we had heard that it can take quite a while to sort out passes and a stable. Tambo had been allocated a lovely ‘room with a view’, overlooking the outside exercise arena. He was completely fascinated watching all the beautiful show ponies being put through their paces. I have never seen such a gorgeous selection of ponies in every shape and size imaginable. Most of the small ones shared stables together and they looked so cute! When we first arrived it was pretty quiet but steadily the lorry parks filled to the brim with some of the most amazing horse boxes I've ever seen!

Tuesday morning started very early with the ‘cross country’ arena course walk at 7.30am! They had built the course just for us to walk, and then within half an hour it was completely dismantled and the arena was ready for a showing class!

The cross country track was very twisty and quite complicated to learn as many of the jumps were negotiated in both directions and a couple of times each! Being so tight and technical, I knew it would suit Tambo as he is so agile, but it was not an easy course for a big horse. At 9.30am we were allowed to ride in the International arena for 3/4 hour to get the horses used to the atmosphere and the lights. I snuck in slightly early when the show horses had their allocated time and as Tambo is so pretty, no one seemed to notice - apart from the fact that he was so much slimmer than the show horses, some of which were really very fat! Tambo coped with the atmosphere in the arena much better than I expected and was very calm and well behaved, not what I was expecting at all!

I then had a really long wait for the dressage class as my time was 5.40pm. It was too long really as it allowed me too much time to think and get nervous! I kept myself busy watching recordings of my dressage lessons with Nikki Barrett and I had a wander around the shops but resisted the urge to buy some new breeches. I got on Tambo at 4.15 as I was not sure how lively he was going to be and we only had until 5.00pm to exercise in the outdoor arena. Everything is exactly timed in the exercise arenas to stop them getting overcrowded, as space is limited. Remarkably, Tambo was still being very calm so I worked him in slowly and then made the long walk to the International arena (it took about 10 mins) and continued working in the collecting ring there. This was quite a small indoor school which led into the tunnel which takes you into the main arena.

My dressage test began in canter and was going very well, all on time to the music until after the walk when I started the trot. Then I went completely blank and forgot to do the extended trot on the diagonal as planned but went straight into my shoulder in and half pass! OMG, my head was spinning as although the judges had no idea of my routine as it’s a freestyle, I had certain compulsory movements to fit in and I also had to keep in time to the music!

Somehow, I managed to keep it together and fitted in an extended trot but I think I may have missed out one of my shoulder in movements. I have to say I am not completely sure and Mum was the only person who knew I had gone wrong and I think it panicked her so much, she can't remember if I did one either!

We also were not given any dressage sheets afterwards with any marks of comments, so I have no idea! It was so frightening as I have not had this happen to me since I was 11 years old, when I was riding in a BD Championship and I went wrong 3 times! It’s the most horrible feeling and I have no idea how it happened, as I knew the test inside and backwards! I did not ride the trot movements very well as my head was in a tizz trying to work out where to go instead of how to ride the moves!

Anyway, Tambo was an angel but I felt that I had let him down terribly. No one seemed to notice and friends that were watching said it looked lovely, I only wish It had felt like that! I didn't get a great score so I guess the judges did notice my mistake! There was a lot of confusion going on regarding the scoring anyway as some of the marks that went up before I went in were then altered without any explanation and no more marks appeared until after all the riders had finished.

But I didn't have time to worry about the dressage anymore, as they had quickly re-built the cross country and I was busy walking this again. I had been joined by Mark Corbett who had stopped at HOYS on his was to the JRN Championships at Weston Park. Mark was a great help, as always, and I felt I had finally learnt the course quite well. I certainly was not going to go blank half way around the cross country!

This started at 8.00pm so Tambo was surprised to be tacked up at that time of night but he coped well. The course was causing quite a few problems and by the time I went in, three people had been eliminated. Tambo was a star as usual. He was simply fantastic, locking onto all the fences and jumping like a stag! We got three time faults, which was my fault but I was happy with the round.

Tambo then went back to his stable, only to be tacked up again at 9.30pm to be ready for the start of the show-jumping at 10.00pm. He had quite a fright on the way to the arena as we met the Household Cavalry who had just finished their display. Not only were they in their full regalia with drums but they all had lights on their legs as well! Quite a sight coming at you in the dark! Not the sort of thing you expect to see and it did set him off!

The show-jumping was a big course with a high plank 'joker' fence at the end which you could jump to remove four faults, but if it went down four were added. Warming up was rushed and chaotic as it was a small arena. I don't know how the show jumpers cope, I suppose they get used to it with all the large indoor shows?

There had been no clear rounds when I went in and I joined the rest by having two down and the joker. Tambo was still on a bit of a high after seeing the Household Cavalry! It was an OK round until the last fence which he really clobbered as I don't think he saw the top plank. I am not sure if there was a light in his eyes but it was very unlike my Tambo. There was only one clear round and we finished up eighth. The great thing about the Express Eventing is that everyone received a minimum of £750 for starting! I really enjoyed the whole experience and think that, in this format, Express Eventing has a great future and will prove to be really popular next year.

We were all completely exhausted the following day, as not only did we finish very late but we had walked miles! Tambo had remained remarkable cool throughout the whole experience and has now had a lovely day munching in the field!