Team Inter-Regionals Hooly, I mean Competition, and a trip to Nikki Crisps!!

So from posting once a year to a few times in 6 months, I'm totes on a roll....here I go again!

The Dream Team

Myself and Woody were super lucky to get chosen to ride for Team Southern at the Senior Inter-Regional team competition in May this year. Woody is an old hack at this kind of thing....he's well known by the Southern Team. But I am new to this kind of stuff.....these big competitions are scaawwwyyyy. And not only that, you're part of a team. So you want to be liked. And usually you need to do a bit of ass kissing to be liked. And I'm not that person. But what I AM is a lover of wine and when the wine hits me, my fun-ability increases tenfold. And THAT is how I make friends.

 

Partners in crime

So I brought the wine. And without going into too much detail, the first night ended up with me rolling around the car park with another team mate at 2 in the morning....no, no you filthy things. Not like that. But the 'make friends with your teammates' mission was accomplished on day 1. Tick. Also, I wasn't toooootally alone. Luckily Woody's owner Amy was also chosen to compete on the team with the horse she has on loan Twister. And Amy's owner, I mean mother, Shauna was there to do all sort of slave like activities. Thank you Shauna, high-five fist-pump.




Woody had a ball and danced his way up to 4th place over the weekend at Elementary level. With 52 elementary riders that weekend I was chuffed! And my team came third overall so that was even better…double yay! I came home absolutely knackered but it was a great weekend and will do it again if we get chosen....hopefully they weren't put off by my love of wine.

Shortly after that we qualified for the individual Elementary Open summer regionals so I decided we would step it up a notch and join our good friends Anna (not fluffy) and Cezare (fluffy) on their trip to Nikki Crisps in Suffolk. 

The downsides:
1. I had to get up early to feed my horse
2. I had to muck out my horse

So the moral of the story is, I need to bring a minion next time I go (I kid, I kid.....or do I?).

The upsides:
1. I felt like I was doing something REEEEEEEALLY naughty (be totally horsey obsessed) for an entire weekend and it was actually ok
2. I was around equally naughty / horse crazy (very lovely) people
3. I picked up some invaluable tips, not only from my lessons with Nikki but also by stalking her while she rode her horses and taught others
4. The food was guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-uuuuuuuuuuud

I fought off the urge to get Woody out of his overnight stable and bring him into the lorry so he could hang out with us at night but I’m pretty sure that it was the Prosecco putting ideas in my head. He was very happy where he was with all the other fluffies. Plus, he’s super long, he would have taken up too much room in the bed. 

The thing I improved most from my time with Nikki is how I warm Woody up. He is such a big moving horse and his canter is like a rocking horse. But basically, if it feels good, it ain’t good. I need to put more effort in so he can be more forward and listening to my aids. Just the small little hints we were given regarding our warm up have turned things around and I’m LOVING how he is going these days. What a dude. He’s swinging more through the back and is sitting on his bum more. Which is a good thing for anyone who is NOT horse obsessed like me. Sitting on your bum, if you're a horse, is a good thing. I would have made a good horse it seems because I like to sit on my bum.

Horse and Hound

Since then, things in my horsey life have been on the up (and by 'on the up' I mean horses have completely taken over my life and doing anything OUTSIDE of being on my horse is now time spent thinking about when I can next be on my horse). We have been out competing almost twice a month, much to the depression of my wallet, and good old Woodster has been pulling in the first place frillies.
 
We even got another mention in Horse and Hound this week. Woohoo! No photos of the creepy smile this time, unfortunately, however it's probably for the best. I had pretty much broken my back before I went on and I'm sure the look on my face was somewhere in between 'creepy smile' and 'I just soiled myself'. Even the judge commented on my position in our test sheet and I was totally holding myself in a position that was semi-manageable. It was the only thing I could do to stop the agony in my back. Anyway, at the end of the day we won both of the classes, and it was only our second time trying a medium test, so it was worth the pain. Plus the other competitors got a nice view of Joel deep kneading my spine just before I went on. WINNING! Seeing that from behind was quite a shock for some onlookers, I’m sure.

The wins meant we have also secured a place at the Medium Restricted Petplan Area Festivals. So from now until August I just need to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! A little voice inside my head keeps telling me that summer is here and actually I need to SUNBATHE, SUNBATHE, SUNBATHE but I just put a little pillow over that voice’s mouth and hold it down until she goes quiet and passes out. Until next time y'all! 

Mirror Selfie