December 2009
6th December - BD Northern Region Christmas Event
The British Dressage Region Christmas Event was opened by Emmerdale actor Billy Hartman, who plays Terry Woods in the soap. Billy and his wife are keen riders.
Billy Hartman cuts the ribbon (with me and Ali 'helping')
Louise Broom from Easingwold Physiotherapy was exhibiting at the event and doing a talk, as was life coach David Collins. David has been working with a group of dressage riders to help improve their performance. He helps riders by improving confidence and belief in their abilities (basically helping them to be less stressed when things go wrong, and appreciating when things are going well!). His talk was very interesting, as was the one by Minster Vets, although their slides were a bit gory!
I had a great time entering all the competitions and raffles and was lucky enough to win 3 months horse feed from Spillers! That'll come in handy!
13th December - Manor Grange Dressage
Took Trev to his first competition in about 6 months and he won a Novice class with 67.50%. Sue brought Clem, but was held up with an accident on the yard, so Ali had to work me in. Trev behaved beautifully and Sue arrived just in time to see the test which was his best ever! (after that I didn't ride him for a month due to snow and ice!).
15th December - Olympia
In September we made a spur of the moment decision to go to Olympia International Horse Show. Ali spent about three hours booking cheap train tickets and hotel rooms (the computer kept crashing) and then we tried to buy tickets for Olympia - only to find they were nearly sold out for the Kur - the best night! Anyway, we managed to get some half decent tickets, and on December 15th we got the train to London and found our way to the hotel.
K West Hotel turned out to be less than 5 minutes on the train from Olympia which made getting to and from the event really easy - it was a fab hotel too! Also on our doorstep was the Westfield Centre which is apparently the largest shopping centre in Europe - it has loads of designer shops and even has a champagne bar!
Anyway, back to the dressage - it was amazing - well, Moorlands Totilas and Edward Gal were amazing! Everybody else was good to watch, and I was very impressed with Simon Laurens' trainer Henriette Andersen who was competing at Olympia for the first time, but Totilas was the star of the show! Here are some short videos we took - you can see how close we were sitting!
I managed to pick up a few ideas for my new kur for Trev while I was there, and bumped into fellow Irish para rider Breda Bernie and her friend Dot who were combining a last minute Xmas shopping trip with a visit to Olympia.
To anyone who has not been to Olympia, I would thoroughly recommend it - go and watch either the dressage or the showjumping - just for the Christmassy atmosphere!
22nd December - My fundraising calendar 2010: Latest News
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Many thanks to everyone who bought calendars and made donations towards my training fund during December. All the money raised will be very useful in my bid to ride at WEG in Kentucky 2010. I think 2010 is going to be a very busy year with lots of training! We sold out easily, and probably could have sold more - so watch this space - we may do another one next year!
Thanks again to Pauline Greenough who gave the photographs free of charge. |
