Sat 25 July 2009
Our Sponsored Rider Jodie Amos rides for GB - Read about it here.
Well, I'm back from Hungary with all the news!
Having spent a fantastic week away in a foreign country with a great bunch of people, it’s inevitable that the return to daily routine is a slight anti-climax... Anyhow, I’m very lucky to have taken part in the CIC** European team Championship and even more so to have two great girls in Alice and Charlotte, who are 100% reliable and who I can trust implicitly to keep the others ticking over whilst I’m away.
All in all Billy coped remarkably well, as did all the horses with the three day trip to Hungary. On arrival on Monday afternoon I did have a slight panic attack as it took until 6pm for the organizers to finally get the stables up, oblivious to the fact that our horses had been waiting since mid-day. I suppose in hind sight what was I expecting... this was Hungary, a small Eastern European country, not England!! Having said that, although aesthetically they were not the nicest looking stables they did the job, kept the flies away and were a lot more breathable once we had kicked out the windows! As for shavings I have a new found respect for the term dust free as the Hungarian equivalent looked fresh from the sawmill and created a thick haze for a good ten minutes causing us all to splutter and cough! Again the horses seemed more than content and by Wednesday the place had transformed itself into a seriously smart looking three day event. The Hungarians were lovely people, very keen to help and make this magnificent natural park a respectable venue for a European Championships.
The Team got off to a cracking start; finishing 2nd in the Team test, which in the past had always been their main weakness. Beating the Germans and Dutch in their strongest discipline is always a cause for celebration! The Team dressage is a phase unique to the event and not something all horses take to. For six very fit horses to work together in a confined space, going through movements in all three paces with the aim being to keep a consistent distance between each other and uniformity throughout, is quite an accomplishment. Needless to say this was not something that suited my little exuberant Billy who prides himself on rising to the occasion and standing out from the crowd, flashing his little socks off. For this reason we competed as an individual. It was Friday before we did our dressage test and by then we felt primed and ready with Billy having really knuckling down to the job in hand since Tuesday. Unfortunately our test was a little disappointing given the standard of work he had shown the previous days, it is possible that we peaked a little early but equally I hadn’t anticipated the crowds or the atmosphere that awaited us. Billy found it all a bit overwhelming and started his test a little insecure but as the test went on he grew in confidence to finish with some fantastic canter work and a respectable mark of 47. This left him in 5th place overall and 2nd best of the Brits. At the end of two days of dressage, the Team managed to clinch 1st spot and Hannah Mace rode the most amazing test to take second place individually, all in all a successful day!
Cross country day was always going to be a tough one with a difficult track which was up to height and technical, a true Championship course. Had the weather stayed sunny most of the week the ground wouldn’t have been as testing but the daily thunder storms meant that the going was very sapping on the horses? This definitely affected Billy whose extravagant gallop stride makes it even more tiring for him. On top of the adverse conditions Billy hadn’t had the preparation runs all the other British horses had had. When I think about it I’m lucky to even have taken part bearing in mind his first run was in April and a couple of months previously he was still in a pen resting with Fiona’s cows!
He jumped out of the start box full of enthusiasm and with the time in mind we were not hanging about. Hannah Mace and Matt Heath got the team off to a great start with them both jumping clear inside the time, which by the end of the day proved to be quite a feat. Having got three quarters of the way round and jumped a lot of the technical combinations it was evident that we were slowly falling behind time. I gave Billy a bit of a wake up call but it was too late, we had hit a brick wall and he needed nursing home. Still trying to catch up lost time I wanted to go direct at the last two influential combinations but paid the price as we ground to a halt two from home. In hindsight I probably should have gone long but riding for a team and under instruction is a whole different ballgame and I had to give it my best shot. The stop with the additional time was very costly to our dressage and we weren’t the only ones as Kathy Oliver and Shelly Dixon suffered a similar fate. At the end of the day the Team had dropped to 2nd but maintained a podium position and Hannah would be jumping for individual Gold! Riding for yourself certainly has its highs and lows but when you take into account seven other peoples joys and disappointments, it becomes a real emotional rollercoaster. At the end of the week, we had all grown very close and I take away with me some wonderful new friendships.
The next day Billy had clearly recovered, prancing about all over the place and sound as a pound despite having lost a shoe. The grooms had been up most of the night tending to the horses and we were very lucky to have such a professional and reliable team. They looked immaculate at all times, a credit to the girl’s hard work. The show jumping was again up to height and very influential. Out of 50 horses there were only 6 clear rounds and I’m pleased to say that Billy and I were one of them. He twisted himself inside out not to touch a pole and I was a very proud of him. It was exciting and promising for the future to see him finish on such good form. Throughout the competition he tried his best and I’m grateful to him for having given me this opportunity. To ride on a British team has always been an ambition of mine and it lived up to all my expectations. Hopefully one day I can emulate this and continue to make my way up the ladder on to a Senior British Team.
|