Things you're most proud of in your career with horses...?

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I was very proud of coming 5th at Rolleston advanced on Deco - santa was there she can confirm it was a bit of an epic from Exeter, including a blow out on the motorway and arriving back late at night with the first of my finals the next day. Turned out it was Deco's last event, and it was the first time I worked out the only way to stay in control was to completely let the handbrake off!

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I still think you are mad for that one just thankgod we did get back in time for your exam!! Was fun and def worth it though, but you did miss your lorry sort of getting grounded in the lorry park although not to the extent of some of the longer wheel based ones
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Hooray Henry, he was a legend wasn't he?! I remember you couldn't open H&H without reading 16/17/18yo HH had posted the fastest time of the day......

santa - the good old days hey?! am pleased to report Missy looks even faster than her mother (and William!) in the field!
 
wow baydale thats impressive I too completed bramham long format but my main claim to fame is beating John Whitaker twice-all beit at foxhunter level and both Harvey and Robert Smith sj in the dark at Rufforth Park Ah those were the days eh
 
ummm mine would have to be getting in the British games team and going to Canada, also competitng at HOYS and Windsor for Scotland.
eventing -wise getting the the PC champs and being the only one in my team to complete!
 
Winning a Novice on my gelding - a horse who i've shed so many tears over due to having endless colic in the past and resulting in colic surgery. To sending him off for surgery, having prepared myself for the worst, to winning at Novice last season still blows me away! And when my trainer told me that he is ready for Intermediate this year (note only him - i'm still psyching myself up!
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) and him telling me i should start Novices with my mare who is only 1 season out of racing was one of the best conversations of my life!
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Also, on the work front, leading horses up and in the winners enclosure at the Cheltenham Festival always stands out and leaves me very emotional
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Cannot wait for my eventing season to begin and for the Festival!
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- being 20th at Bramham and winning the ProAm, paired with Andrew Hoy who won on Swizzle In.



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How bizarre! I competed against that horse in Canada, before Gina moved here. Which makes me even more of a has been . . .
 
There are quite a few things I'm proud of, not quite on par with completing Badminton, but my highlights are in a sort of chronological order:

Stopping Dona Nana, mum's first horse in my lifetime and she had 4 gears: reverse, jog, sideways canter and gallop. As I was generally just a steering passanger stopping her was a real WOW moment it had only taken 3yrs for me to work out how!

Taking on a horse that everyone else had given up on and at the age of 14 (with advice from mum) training him up to win endurances (our year went elim-16th-8-4-4-1-1-2-2) ending up ranking 2nd nationally in our category. The real sense of achievement was not the winning my first ride but the day in a race when he actually pushed forward and wanted to be at the front of the pack rather than happy trailing along at the back, I will never forget Pirque, Sept 2001!
Also in 2005 I went back to Chile, and visiting my old stables got offered a ride in the Endurce that weekend. It was the mares first race, I had never ridden her before and we came 3rd, made me feel that prev success wasn't just a fluke I did have some skill as a rider.

What else? Succesful breaking in 6 QH 3yr olds on my own and getting complimented by the studs head trainer on my job! As I looked up to him as God I walked on air for a week till I got dumped spectacularly by one of those 3yr olds (of course it was infront of him).

With Beau, lots of stuff mainly 'firsts' like actually competing in a 'real' DR, SJ comp and completing our first ODE!
A highlight would have to be showjumping clear round a 95cm track that was causing carnage, unfortunatly we didn't place becasue I hadn't learnt the JO as I never expected to get that far! So I made it up as I went much to everyones amusement
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proudest moment is probably winning at Sapey PN with Pilfer in my first season.

i fell off in my first Intro and six events later won at PN (with a huge amount of help from Pilfer).
 
Learning to ride and having a pony was the first most exciting thing I remember about horses... The feeling on longing to ride and have a pony! my daughter will never have that feeling and just touching and riding a pony is the first most amazing feeling I will never forget

I was taken to watch the RIHS at NEC with a friend at 8 years old having never really ever seen anything like horses jumping or a show and the person that took us had a go round the back pass..... I met all sorts of people I had never even heard of at the time and OMG how cool was that and the lady who took us was very good friends with David Broome..... So when i got home - I had never jumped at this point and had just been bough a small grey pony (you no the sort) On my own in the field as you did 30 years ago I found 2 log saw bentches some poles to make into a jump which about 2ft6... went to the bottum of the field and Gallop (ok cantered) said small pony towards the jump and there is first lesson in learning to jump!!! lucky for me he was 100% schoolmaster PC pony and jumped it and I came in proudly to my Mum that I can now jump like David Broome

Being Double Clear in the Pony Club Area Eventing Team at 12 years old on a 13.3hh jumping pony and doing 12 flying changes in one canter and getting a Dressage score of 90 and Tina Reeve (North Warks PC if your my age and from Area 7 she was the star) had already finished double clear on 39 before i even started my dressage..... gave me the push to learn how to do Dressage

Going Clear XC in 10 Pony Club Area Eventing on the trot

Being in the Pony GB team that won a Bronze Medal

Being in the Junior GB team

Eventing to CCI***

and of the last few years

with B

Winning a Section at the Pony Club Dressage Championships int 2008 and open 2009 - I never got to the Dressage Championship ever in the years I tried and to then win is a moment I will remember for ever as something B Top me at..... She does have an amazing Pony that has been very well tried by another HHO forum member for many years.

and going clear in her first BE Novice last year at 12 years old.... my first butterfly moment as a mother.
 

its not really comp results that make me 'proud' but more compliments from people who really know their stuff.
compliments from sh*t hot riders / producers / pros mean more

although i am proud of my good mare 's reputation - no one likes to see her turn up at a show as she wins so much (provided i dont balls up)!!

i get just as much of a smug ' look what i did' buzz from a retarded 4 yo which ive been working on for weeks jumping round a bn nicely as i do winning a decent class though

all relative i suppose
 
Getting two different selfmade ponies to the RIHS in 1990 and 1994, one of them being an ex-rescue who was found tethered on a roundabout in Bristol.
Seeing a pony we bought after everyone condemned him (he'd gone through lots of yards inc John Whitaker's who said he'd never jump a combination again) who we hunted and got going again go to the Europeans.
Then with the driving horses - Maggie (left in sig) who we bred and I've done most of the homework with winning a final against much more experienced horses after my brother (race-driver) and I had a blazing row because he said she wasn't good enough and couldn't quicken, he did at least have the grace to apologise after she won
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