We missed out on a podium finish… by 0.2%!
But I couldn’t be any happier!
Liz Daniels shares why she was delighted.
For those of you who have followed my journey with Joules you will know that we hadn’t gotten off to a flying start. It was 0% her and 100% me. Right horse – terrible timing springs to mind.
If you’re interested as to why you can read more here, but my well timed kick up the bum provided me the inspiration we needed and since my last blog we have been having so so so much fun.
We did two BD shows which qualified us for the BD Petplan Area Festival, and also a win which qualified us for the Scottish Championships. With a total of two shows under our belts we weren’t particularly prepared, but we tootled off to the Areas with zero expectations.
It was a test of two halves – the first half being exceptionally pleasing with all three judges awarding consistent 8’s and 7.5’s and just as I stupidly started to think – ‘Blimey, this could be a qualifying for Nationals kind of a test’, a child popped their head up over the banner as we passed and I retuned to the real world and tried to rescue the rest of the test!
I was chuffed, we finished just out of the placing for 11th, and it was certainly an educational reminder of how green and inexperienced she is – there wasn’t a bad bone in her, just a lack of experience.
I’ve then had a crazy run of Equiteam Confidence Camps which has meant that although we have been working hard at home, we hadn’t been out or even started our winter campaign.
The Scottish Champs came around faster than I had anticipated and it was back to Rockrose for our fourth show to put the pony eating child situation to bed!
I couldn’t have been any happier with her, we did a warm up test for a very respectable score and she felt amazing, back in we went for her Championship test and she was hoof perfect. I smiled my way around it and came out grinning, and said to the lovely Equiteamers there that I was chuffed to bits because she couldn’t have done any better. How rare is it to be able to say that!
The test put us in second place, but very quickly we moved to third.. which is where we stayed for the whole class, right until the last rider, who did a beautiful test for 0.2% more than ours!
A podium finish at her first Scottish Champs would have been the icing on the cake, but how could I be disappointed – I truly wasn’t – I was thrilled and here is why…
You see for me, the judging is a wonderful bench mark, but it is one tiny part of a bigger picture.
Each time out we are putting building blocks in place to shape her future. It’s not about the rosettes and the points and percent’s, it’s about the education.
She is now used to having her tail washed, being plaited, she loads wonderfully, she travels like a dream, each time out she is getting calmer when she gets there and she now eats haylage when she arrives.
I can tack up, I can get on her, she is responsive and listening to me in the warm up, she is getting used to horses cantering up behind her, we can take the work we get in the warm up into the arena, and each time out she is getting more and more rideable.
I’m learning what she needs from me to keep her side of the deal, how much pressure I can ask and when. I can take her away from the other horses and she doesn’t shout or get tense, she can have horses doing their tests in the next door arena and she doesn’t care.
I can walk her in a head collar to cool off, and she will stand on the trailer and eat haylage once we have finished so that I can get my essential food stuffing!
For me, all of this is the important bits. These are the educational blocks which then will allow us to progress when she is ready.
The scores and comments are so lovely to have and the rosettes are amazing, but coming out of a test knowing that regardless of what the judge has written, or where she is placed in the class doesn’t really matter because she tried her heart out for me and couldn’t have done any better. What a wonderful privileged feeling to have when developing a partnership.
And for those who are wondering – the mojo is back!
Liz x
