Another red one

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Oh my goodness me, I am such a happy bunny tonight. I think you can guess why…

It was Carleton Riding Club’s show today. After our time away at camp, I was feeling good about our chances. But never dreamed we’d win the 70cm. That’s usually a hotly contested class.

Learning my lesson from our less than successful outing for the Combined Training qualifier, I left early for my class. Good job too as it was gridlock on the slip road up to the venue. Thankfully a very kind person let me pull onto the roundabout and continue on our way.

I went to check how they were running thinking I’d a good 45 mins. Bit of a miscommunication meant I thought they were getting the course ready for the 70cm. So quickly went to walk the course, only to be told it was actually for the 60cm. Phew!

I’d already decided that after my unscheduled dismount at our last competition, I was going to go steady and see what happened. Buddy pinged round the course. He tapped a couple, but they all stayed up! I thought I might get a placing with a steady clear round. Little did I know there were only two clear rounds. We won by 0.01 of a second!

We even got to do the lap of honour to the Horse of the Year theme tune. Such a lovely touch. And qualification to the Sunshine Tour in September at Hickstead.

I was in two minds whether to do the 80cm class. After walking it, I decided to go for it.

Again, Buddy pinged round till fence 5 where he punched it out. At some point, I lost my left stirrup and couldn’t get it back so had to jump the rest of the round without it. Shows how much my balance has improved. Sticky jods help too.

For some reason, I thought I’d stop and try to get my stirrup back. Poor Buddy got a bit confused by it all. With hindsight, I only had one fence left to go, so I should have just carried on as I still couldn’t get it back. So jumped the last fence without it. Anyway we ended up 8 faults. I came out laughing about it all.

They say you’re either winning or learning – today I did both. It’s not often we come home with a red one. We’ve had two in July! I could get used it you know…

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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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