miss_c
Well-Known Member
Wow, what an exhausting weekend!!!
We left my yard at 9.20am on Friday morning, picked up a team mate's horse en-route, and then headed up to Bury Farm. A fairly smooth journey apart from bit of traffic around Oxford, and we arrived at about 1.30pm. Very pleased to find we had permanent stables in probably the nicest barn on site, and both horses settled in immediately with lovely straw beds. The only downside was I had to clean Genie's water drinker out as the previous occupant had left it full to the brim with poo, and as she then wouldn't touch the thing (and I don't blame her!) I was hauling buckets around all weekend.
Poor attempt at a selfie....
Worked her briefly Friday evening, more for a leg stretch than anything, and bless her she really did try hard. The more people that are about the better she is, something I was hoping would work in our favour! Friday night I'm afraid we missed the briefing and instead went for a lovely meal at a local pub before flopping in the lorry, which was parked in the PERFECT place!
Saturday we had one rider on fairly early, then the rest of us were all within half an hour of each other. Paranoid about running out of time, Genie was plaited up fairly early then left to chill (ie sleep!) and then watched some tests. The standard of horses there was incredibly high, the majority would not have looked out of place at the BD National Championships, so I was just hoping to do as best as we possibly could.
I didn't quite have Genie where I needed her for our test, however she did go into show-off mode the second we turned onto the centre line. A few things I would have liked to improve, and came out thinking 65% would be fair, so very chuffed to get 67.92%. Good pony who was very chuffed with herself...
Overnight the team was in 13th, but it was extremely close from 3rd to 15th so everything to play for on the Sunday. We had a lovely evening watching the PSG Freestyle which was won by Charlie Hutton, and eating the delicious carvery! Then it was night checks and back to sleep.
Sunday I woke up at about 5am to the rain on the roof of the lorry and all I could think was 'Thank goodness I'm inside today!'. Was on the yard at about 6.15am and as I had an early time it was time to get plaiting once Genie had eaten her breakfast. With so much to play (or ride) for I knew the team wanted us to post a good score so the pressure was on a bit.
Genie warmed up like a pro, and before I knew it the time came for us to go into the fabulous indoor arena and do our test. There had been a fair few spooking through the morning so all I could do was trust her.
Well... boy did she give me the ride of my LIFE! She felt absolutely unbelievably good, everything I asked of her she gave me 200%, and halfway through the test I couldn't help myself from just smiling as it felt so fabulous. Perhaps riding on the Olympic surface the day before rubbed off on her. One tiny blip where she went to break in the canter but I caught it immediately and was hopeful that I would not lose too many marks.
Back at the stable yard she had SO many hugs and once she was washed off I called my Mum, promptly bursting into tears (of joy!). One team member kindly skipped her out for me as I was as useless as a useless thing, while another went off to the scoreboards. Usually when I feel that a test has gone well the judges disagree, so I was really rather nervous.
The SUPER mare only went and posted 72.78%! In usual Genie style she split the judges - one had her on over 81% with another on 66.something, the other one in the middle of the two! Our sheet from the judge that loved her had not one, not two, but THREE 9s on it. We got away with the near break, one judge didn't comment at all, one said there was a slight 'hiccup', and the other said there was a slight loss of rhythm. More happy tears from me, and I'm not ashamed to admit it!
Of course, Genie found it very hard work being such a 'gorgeous little superstar'...
Long story short, the rest of our team did not have such a fantastic day, but we only dropped one place to 14th overall, still only 0.4% behind 10th place! Was slightly gutted to find that although ALL teams in the U16 and U25 sections got rosettes, in the Open they only gave rosettes to 10th.
A long journey home, and we finally got back to the yard about 9.30pm. I'm afraid Genie was unloaded, rug changed, and shoved out in the field for the night, not that she was complaining!
So... would I do Team Quest again? Probably not... it cost me too much money and I'm not sure how they can make it truly the grass roots competition it is supposed to be. However, did I have a fantastic time? Most certainly! The team at BD did an amazing job, and the staff at Bury Farm were, without exception, brilliant.
Right then... time to inject myself with caffeine and attempt to stay awake for work this evening! Thank you for reading. Pro photos from my tests are on my blog (link in the signature) along with other photos I haven't uploaded in this post.
We left my yard at 9.20am on Friday morning, picked up a team mate's horse en-route, and then headed up to Bury Farm. A fairly smooth journey apart from bit of traffic around Oxford, and we arrived at about 1.30pm. Very pleased to find we had permanent stables in probably the nicest barn on site, and both horses settled in immediately with lovely straw beds. The only downside was I had to clean Genie's water drinker out as the previous occupant had left it full to the brim with poo, and as she then wouldn't touch the thing (and I don't blame her!) I was hauling buckets around all weekend.
Poor attempt at a selfie....
Worked her briefly Friday evening, more for a leg stretch than anything, and bless her she really did try hard. The more people that are about the better she is, something I was hoping would work in our favour! Friday night I'm afraid we missed the briefing and instead went for a lovely meal at a local pub before flopping in the lorry, which was parked in the PERFECT place!
Saturday we had one rider on fairly early, then the rest of us were all within half an hour of each other. Paranoid about running out of time, Genie was plaited up fairly early then left to chill (ie sleep!) and then watched some tests. The standard of horses there was incredibly high, the majority would not have looked out of place at the BD National Championships, so I was just hoping to do as best as we possibly could.
I didn't quite have Genie where I needed her for our test, however she did go into show-off mode the second we turned onto the centre line. A few things I would have liked to improve, and came out thinking 65% would be fair, so very chuffed to get 67.92%. Good pony who was very chuffed with herself...
Overnight the team was in 13th, but it was extremely close from 3rd to 15th so everything to play for on the Sunday. We had a lovely evening watching the PSG Freestyle which was won by Charlie Hutton, and eating the delicious carvery! Then it was night checks and back to sleep.
Sunday I woke up at about 5am to the rain on the roof of the lorry and all I could think was 'Thank goodness I'm inside today!'. Was on the yard at about 6.15am and as I had an early time it was time to get plaiting once Genie had eaten her breakfast. With so much to play (or ride) for I knew the team wanted us to post a good score so the pressure was on a bit.
Genie warmed up like a pro, and before I knew it the time came for us to go into the fabulous indoor arena and do our test. There had been a fair few spooking through the morning so all I could do was trust her.
Well... boy did she give me the ride of my LIFE! She felt absolutely unbelievably good, everything I asked of her she gave me 200%, and halfway through the test I couldn't help myself from just smiling as it felt so fabulous. Perhaps riding on the Olympic surface the day before rubbed off on her. One tiny blip where she went to break in the canter but I caught it immediately and was hopeful that I would not lose too many marks.
Back at the stable yard she had SO many hugs and once she was washed off I called my Mum, promptly bursting into tears (of joy!). One team member kindly skipped her out for me as I was as useless as a useless thing, while another went off to the scoreboards. Usually when I feel that a test has gone well the judges disagree, so I was really rather nervous.
The SUPER mare only went and posted 72.78%! In usual Genie style she split the judges - one had her on over 81% with another on 66.something, the other one in the middle of the two! Our sheet from the judge that loved her had not one, not two, but THREE 9s on it. We got away with the near break, one judge didn't comment at all, one said there was a slight 'hiccup', and the other said there was a slight loss of rhythm. More happy tears from me, and I'm not ashamed to admit it!
Of course, Genie found it very hard work being such a 'gorgeous little superstar'...
Long story short, the rest of our team did not have such a fantastic day, but we only dropped one place to 14th overall, still only 0.4% behind 10th place! Was slightly gutted to find that although ALL teams in the U16 and U25 sections got rosettes, in the Open they only gave rosettes to 10th.
A long journey home, and we finally got back to the yard about 9.30pm. I'm afraid Genie was unloaded, rug changed, and shoved out in the field for the night, not that she was complaining!
So... would I do Team Quest again? Probably not... it cost me too much money and I'm not sure how they can make it truly the grass roots competition it is supposed to be. However, did I have a fantastic time? Most certainly! The team at BD did an amazing job, and the staff at Bury Farm were, without exception, brilliant.
Right then... time to inject myself with caffeine and attempt to stay awake for work this evening! Thank you for reading. Pro photos from my tests are on my blog (link in the signature) along with other photos I haven't uploaded in this post.