Empty tank

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Buddy and I headed over to Easton College today for our first show jumping competition of 2026. I can’t quite believe it’s June and we’ve only been to two competitions this year.

I know why. It’s not been plain sailing this year. Still we made it. It wasn’t without faults. But once more, I know why.

I left myself what I thought was lots of time to get there. It wasn’t enough as they were running early. So once more I missed the course walk for the 70cm. I watched a couple go so kinda got the course. It didn’t necessarily help my cause that the person in front of me fell off! So that was my last opportunity to see how the course rode.

It wasn’t the smooth round we’ve been working on as I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going. Poor Buddy definitely trusted me as I threw him at a few fences. The lack of actually walking the distances and lines meant we ended up on 12 faults.

I wasn’t missing the course walk for the 80cm! Good job too as it was a very twisty turny course. Having nailed the course in my head, we had a rather long wait till it was our turn. Buddy had totally switched off by the time I rode him in. Still he gave me the most amazing feeling round the course till we got to fence 9. I got greedy and overcooked my turn. He had it down but we recovered well. Sadly by the time we reached fence 11, I could feel his tank emptying. He had that down too and I nursed him to the final fence.

Overall it looks like another bad day in the ring, but I am really happy with my little boy. I know he’s not as jumping fit as he has been. It was our first 80cm of the year. So to end on 8 faults is OK in my book. He tried so hard for me and it wasn’t that long ago that he would have jacked it in if I got it a bit wrong.

And Operation Get Us Jumping Fit is on…

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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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