Wimbles
Well-Known Member
So this weekend we trooped off to the Open Championships at Onley Grounds. Due to illness and injury it was my first time playing since April and as well as taking my usual horseball steed, Society Sam, I also decided that it would be a good idea to take my new Irish Draught, Koko to see what she thought of the sport, despite only having one training session!
So dressed up in their matching team colours of The Nottingham Knights Horseball Club we settled into the stables and got plaited and pampered ready for vetting the next morning.
We woke up to a thick frost frost but undeterred we oiled feet, brushed tails and tidied plaits and wearing everything I owned, ready to present them to the vet for trot up.
Both my normal Knights team and my new team The Nottingham Lionhearts all flew through vetting and we tacked up and bandaged for our first match. The Nottingham Knights were a newly put together team at the start of the year and it has been a pretty steep learning curve but we have trained incredibly hard all year so it was a brilliant result when we won 9-1 with me and Sam scoring a couple of decent goals
Next up was the Lionhearts who were made up of mainly new university students playing their first matches and me on the new horse. Koko wondered what the heck was going on when she was asked to jump over the inflatable barriers to get into the arena and was then faced with the giant lime green inflatable goal ends!! She was a bit confused at what was being asked of her so we took it easy but she was absolutely great and tried really hard and the whole team really got stuck in to get out with a fantastic 2-2 draw.
We also sailed through the next day's vetting with smartly turned out horses. With the Knights in the higher division we were playing in the final for 1st and 2nd place against a team containing quite a few international players and the Lionhearts in the 3rd division we were playing for 3rd and 4th so whatever happened it would be a good result. My two matches were one after the other so it was a bit crazy trying to get them both ready and then finding someone to warm up Sam.
The Lionhearts were like a different team with a day's competition under their belts. Koko also had a better grasp of what was going on and was an absolute superstar during the game and we won 4-0 which was a phenomenal result for such an inexperienced team!
I then had to abandon Koko with someone and jump onto Sam. The game was fast and furious and the more experienced team were rather shocked with the 2-2 scoreline at half time. We eventually lost 6-3 but it was a really tight match where we missed a few chances and we came out feeling incredibly proud of our 2nd place which was very well deserved.
So all in all it was an amazing weekend and at the presentation I was thrilled to be award The Best Turned Out award too, not a big deal to some but I take great pride on how my horses look so it was nice to get the recognition.
The Horseball season is now done until next April so my pair will carry on with other activities to keep them busy but I think we will all be smiling about this for a long time to come!
So dressed up in their matching team colours of The Nottingham Knights Horseball Club we settled into the stables and got plaited and pampered ready for vetting the next morning.
We woke up to a thick frost frost but undeterred we oiled feet, brushed tails and tidied plaits and wearing everything I owned, ready to present them to the vet for trot up.
Both my normal Knights team and my new team The Nottingham Lionhearts all flew through vetting and we tacked up and bandaged for our first match. The Nottingham Knights were a newly put together team at the start of the year and it has been a pretty steep learning curve but we have trained incredibly hard all year so it was a brilliant result when we won 9-1 with me and Sam scoring a couple of decent goals
Next up was the Lionhearts who were made up of mainly new university students playing their first matches and me on the new horse. Koko wondered what the heck was going on when she was asked to jump over the inflatable barriers to get into the arena and was then faced with the giant lime green inflatable goal ends!! She was a bit confused at what was being asked of her so we took it easy but she was absolutely great and tried really hard and the whole team really got stuck in to get out with a fantastic 2-2 draw.
We also sailed through the next day's vetting with smartly turned out horses. With the Knights in the higher division we were playing in the final for 1st and 2nd place against a team containing quite a few international players and the Lionhearts in the 3rd division we were playing for 3rd and 4th so whatever happened it would be a good result. My two matches were one after the other so it was a bit crazy trying to get them both ready and then finding someone to warm up Sam.
The Lionhearts were like a different team with a day's competition under their belts. Koko also had a better grasp of what was going on and was an absolute superstar during the game and we won 4-0 which was a phenomenal result for such an inexperienced team!
I then had to abandon Koko with someone and jump onto Sam. The game was fast and furious and the more experienced team were rather shocked with the 2-2 scoreline at half time. We eventually lost 6-3 but it was a really tight match where we missed a few chances and we came out feeling incredibly proud of our 2nd place which was very well deserved.
So all in all it was an amazing weekend and at the presentation I was thrilled to be award The Best Turned Out award too, not a big deal to some but I take great pride on how my horses look so it was nice to get the recognition.
The Horseball season is now done until next April so my pair will carry on with other activities to keep them busy but I think we will all be smiling about this for a long time to come!
