School is over and it's back to eventing

      Positano and me after our first post-HSC ride

It’s been a good few months since my last blog but school is over (for good this time) and it’s safe to say I’m back. For the most part of last year I was studying hard for my HSC meaning I was only able to attend two events before the stress kicked in. I’m happy to say however, that the stress paid off and after my gap year I’ll be starting an interior architecture course at UNSW. Needless to say this year will be a lot more horse focused with heaps of comps already entered and even some work placement lined up which I’ll be able to talk about in more detail in my next blog.

      Positano getting festive on his birthday (Christmas Eve)

2014 is certainly off to a good start as well with Positano and me winning Mirrabooka ODE on January 23rd, our first event in over eight months! Competition day followed on from another fab clinic with most of the same great instructors, and some new ones. I felt relatively prepared on competition but probably more nervous than I’ve ever been The verdict: Positano was a lot more prepared than I was, breezing through the dressage and cross country fault free while I wheezed and frantically steered on his back. I had to try and keep it together in the show jumping as my unfit post-cross country warmblood was feeling a bit tired, but we managed to maintain first place with one rail.

Next up on the calendar is Wallaby Hill on the 8th Feb and hopefully with some more intensive training this week I’ll be feeling less out of practise! Wallaby Hill is one of my favourite events so I’m really looking forward to competing there after over a year. After Wallaby Hill is SIEC, which always produces very stiff competition and a tough cross country course. It’s definitely a goal of mine to finish with a win at SIEC so fingers crossed. If all goes well I’ll be trying my first one star track very soon!

       Some piccies from the Mirrabooka clinic and training over some of the 1 Star fences