Mayday!! Mayday!! Part 2

Show time

Sunday, we headed down to Athenry for a practice run at the Galway Equestrian Centre Grand Prix show. I was planning on doing two classes; the Ladies 1.10 and the Amateur league. They were both on in different arenas so it was hard to gauge what time to head down. In the end I didn't travel down till about 12 or so, which ended up being fine, I could actually have gone later! Wendy came too with her horse. It was an absolute beaut of a day. The kind where you have to reapply suncream constantly. When I got there the 1.20 was on in my arena and the 1.10 was the next class, but it was ages before it came on. The course looked grand when I walked it, the height was fine, I wasn't nervy about it. I went over the course a few times, just looking at it and then headed off to get CC.I  tacked up and got ready to go. Off we went to the warm up.....

Sunshine!!

The warm up.........that place where you go to warm up your horse before you enter the competition ring. But on that particular day it was Beirut. There were too many horses. Horses going every way, cutting across you, stopping in front of you, just absolute mayhem. My head was completely psyched out and I really let it get to me. CC was stopping at jumps because we were both freaked out by it all. I just gave up and went in. Being honest, I wasn't in the best frame of mind to do my best, but excuses, excuses......... We had two down 😕 Onwards.......
Ladies 1.10 video

Going over the course, one last time

After that I helped Wendy get ready for her class. While they were still adjusting her jumps, I ran to walk the amateur class. The warm up wasn't quite as bad, but it had started to get bad so I told her to get in and jump. As soon as she was finished I noticed everyone was warming up so I had to run to get CC. This time I warmed him up on the flat in the field and only went in when I was ready to jump. It was Beirut Take Two. I didn't get to jump the heights I needed too because people kept getting in the way or changing the jumps. It was a nightmare.  I was psyched out again and had started to forget the course. Someone's horse got kicked in the warm up and I was being called to go in. When I went in I started to panic about the heights. I was furious about the whole warm up situation. What is it with amateurs and warm ups?! Honest to god, it's like they have a death wish. I had no time to walk around when I got in because they were waiting on me. It was just take a breath and go. We jumped everything, but we had 3 down. Uck..........bad day at the office. Just the kind of preparation I wanted for the Amateurs. I was so disappointed because the lesson on Friday I'd felt really ready, but the warm up had pushed me over the edge.


There were 130 people entered in my class for the A section of the amateurs on the Monday. I was drawn 12th. Not a bad spot, to be honest because it meant you weren't hanging around and you knew what time to get there for, the very start.
Dani & Dubh stayed with me Sunday night. We had some wine to calm the nerves.  Poor Amanda had entered for it, but her horse Carter went lame that week........horses eh? But she came with us to help, good friend that she is. We are a team. 💪 Dani was drawn near enough to me, which was handy.
 We all walked the course together. Number 2 freaked me out because it was massive and it got into my head. It was the only jump that I stood beside to see how big it was (silly me, I've learned from that mistake). There was a triple, there were some horse statues in the centre and a lovely mahoosive triple bar. The trouble about walking the course is I tend to psyche myself out.....so obviously I just kept thinking about that bloody jump!! Damn you number two........and so early in the course.

Amanda helped with the warm up jumps. I was nervous enough in the warm up. There was an air of nervous tension about. Serena from Make up and muck heaps helped me with my breathing which really helped me chill the beans a bit. Soon it was time to enter the arena. Eek. Well, actually we had some time in the pocket. We got in while the rider ahead of us was jumping and I went over the course as I watched.  I got him going for one because we'd had the first one down yesterday so I was determined to get over one. But then I forgot about two and my legs just didn't react in time and he stopped because he had no support from me at all. We turned around and he was straight over it. After that I actually rode properly. Jump three lead lead us into the triple so I really rode and then squeezed like hell for the triple (if I was religious I would have said a prayer too!).We soared over them and he met each one perfectly- boom!! We were flying. It felt great. Jump ten was the triple bar and I really squeezed for that but then I lost all energy in my legs and eleven was a double which we had one down because poor CC had no support from me.  He flew around to number 12, the final jump then and sailed over it, loads of horses had difficulty with that one and some were eliminated. We came out with 8 faults but we could have won it the smile was so big on my face. I was absolutely delighted with him. He tried his little heart out and do you know what? We were well able for it. If I could have believed that at the start, it might have been a different outcome.

Such height!!

Flying high

Up, up and away

Last jump

The Dude

Onwards and upwards!!