Sweat stings

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Buddy and I headed over to the Showground for a spot of showjumping today. I left the yard and it didn’t feel too hot. I was wrong. It was baking by the time we arrived.

Tacked Buddy up and headed to walk the 70cm course. Thankfully someone was able to hold him for me. It walked well so headed to the warm up. It was a bit of a different set up. There was a very small warm up next to the ring. They were only letting 4 horses at a time in there, so we used the bigger warm up away from the ring.

Buddy managed to trip a few times on the uneven ground so I kept the jumping to a minimum. Soon it was our turn the go to the proper warm up and Buddy was feeling good.

Slight blip when a woman decided to walk her inhand pony and two children through the warm up. Madness! Buddy was not happy about that either. It was such a small area and people jumping – it was downright dangerous.

The warm up ring can be like going into battle at the best of times.

I brushed it off and entered the ring. It was single phase and we went double clear in a really fast time. Took a few ‘eventer’ lines and Buddy was on it! He ate up the ground.

He was so sweaty by the time we’d finished, I thought I’d take him back to the lorry and wash him off while I waited for the next class. I’m so lucky that Buddy is so easy when we go out.

Wandering back to the ring, I arrived as the last rider was finishing. Imagine my surprise when they announced we’d come second! So happy.

Walked the 80cm and went back to tack Buddy up again. I nearly blinded myself as I had so much sweat running in my eyes. My god, sweat stings! I was a dribbly mess by the time I was done. I couldn’t get my gloves on as my hands were so wet. Classy huh?!

By the time we got back to the warm up, Buddy was feeling as hot and bothered as I was. Neither of us was at our best in the 80cm round. I messed up some of the line and it was a very twisty course. Final result was 16 faults.

I was disappointed as I know we could do so much better. But we started together, finished together and sweated even more together!

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Published by langlep

So 2020 was going to be my year. The year I got my life sorted after being served redundancy notice from my job in November 2019. The year I ticked off more things from my horsey bucket list. The year I got my mental health back under control and reduced stress in my life. I had a plan. And it was a good one. Then the plan changed dramatically on 2 January. I came off my horse at speed and broke my ankle. Badly. Like all good equestrians, I got back on and rode back to the yard, sorted Buddy out and then drove myself to A&E. That’s where this journey really began... I was sent home from A&E and told to crack on, only to receive a phone call later to say they’d missed a fracture (and a rather serious one at that). Whoops! So fracture clinic on 3 January, surgery on 5 January and home to recover. I started this blog as a way to chart my recover back to the saddle. As I cleared clinics and competitions out of my diary and wondered what the next few months would bring, it's been a safe space for me to say how I'm feeling. The new plan was to get a new job, to keep Buddy is kept ticking over and recover from my injury. Another good plan! I didn't expect a global pandemic, lockdown and all that happened in 2020. This blog has changed over time but it's continued to be my safe space to share the things going on in my life, with Buddy and the cats. Enjoy!

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