After one of the most wettest months of March, I thought I would put my time to good use and write my first blog (with a little help from my Mum) as one of the Millbry Hill Junior Supported Riders for 2018.

It is fair to say that both rain and snow has certainly thrown a spanner in my Eventing plans for 2018 and I’m sure others can relate to this. What a miserable start to the 2018 eventing season!

Disappointingly, my first run at Oasby, in Lincolnshire was abandoned and there appears to be a succession of other best made plans with Epworth, Breckenbrough and Eland Lodge following the same abandonment route due to waterlogged ground. 
Behind the scenes a lot of planning goes into my competition plans with my Coach and the support team. During this very long winter spell, we’ve trained hard and also successfully competed in BD, BS and BE arena events to ensure my ponies are fit and ready to go! I’ve spent a lot of time with Angie Johnson from Baileys Horse Feeds to ensure the ponies bloom and perform on their chosen Baileys feeds, along with regular physio sessions and demo from Equissage, routine dental check ups and so on.

For the last couple of years, as part of my pre-eventing fitness regime, my ponies and I set up base at Somerford Park for four days of training with some of the country’s best coaches. Last week we were there and thankfully we managed to escape some of the wet weather to train on grass, yes grass everyone, it was amazing. My mum takes great pleasure to say she was sunburnt on one of those days too – no one would believe it when back home it was tanking down! Both ponies excelled and it was good to be put through our paces during flatwork, show jumping and cross country training. In fact I would have been quite happy for my parents to leave me there until July, when the weather improves back up North.

So it’s a tricky situation us eventers find ourselves in, the endless challenge of keeping our ponies fit, the hunger to jump on grass and the desperation to get a few runs under our belts.

Fingers, toes and hooves crossed for drier days in April and I am hugely grateful to the event organisers and BE officials who are making massive efforts to run events in safe conditions.

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