This is why we do it .......... Photo courtesy Derek O'Leary
So, just like the many, many other mad keen eventers, I have more photos of horses on my Facebook than photos of myself. In fact you would be hard pressed to find a photo that doesn’t somehow involve horses! The other day I put up a photo of a certain special pony at Mt Gambier HT and someone commented on it asking how it is that I happen to be smiling in every photo that I put up. I answered simply that if you don’t love what you are doing then why would you do it? Eventing is a very high risk sport and this has been proven by the number of terrible tragedies that have occurred recently. Things can go wrong and sometimes they do, but when the fun outweighs the fear; that is when the magic happens. While I was thinking about what to write for this month’s blog, I was brainstorming what I enjoy about eventing.
When thinking it through I came up with a few things; from that feeling of accomplishment you get after a good event too that sweet balance of terror and anticipation that you feel when walking the XC and in the XC warm up. But what I enjoy most about eventing is without question that feeling you get as the starter counts you down and you are sizing up your first fence. You can feel your horse realising what’s going on and they start to fire up and you can almost feel the adrenalin begin to pulse. Then as the starter counts down from ten and you lock your eyes on the open ground ahead, your horse begins to pull against the rein as they can see it too. Three, two, one and then as you finally release the now near strangle hold on the horses head and they surge forward in an adrenalin charged leap ancd you hear either a ‘Good luck’ or a ‘Have fun’. It is then in that moment of time that you totally tune out to everything going on around you. You don’t hear or see the people and horses on the sidelines, you see the other jumps around you but you don’t comprehend them. All that is in your mind at that moment is the thrilling beat of horses hooves on turf mixed with the frantic pounding of your own heartbeat in your ears as well as the almost instinctual actions that you are about to do in preparing to jump the first fence. It could be ‘Sit up a little now’ or ‘Keep this rhythm’. You feel your horse see the fence as you line it up and you can feel their thrill as they understand. Sometimes they have a little spook or they surge forward, as eager as you are to tackle the challenge ahead. It is this moment of almost a very loud quiet which I enjoy the most. Then the adrenalin plateaus a little and then (when all goes well of course) it is just pure exhilaration as your horse eats up the course and it is all over far too quickly. This is why I do what I do and this is why I love what I do. Of course that feeling after doing a good dressage test is nice and you can also hear that magical sound of the very loud quiet in the show jump ring as well (especially in the Werribee indoor for some reason…) but if it wasn’t for that feeling on cross country this sport would not exist. So a better answer to that little girls question about how I manage to smile in every horse riding photo would be what I wrote above. It is just pure magic.
But that’s enough on the philosophical stuff.
My first event back for the season was Mt Gambier HT Which was a great event (despite the long drive) and sizzle put in a solid test, a fantastic clear XC and only one SJ rail. He was a superstar considering he hadn’t competed since Woady Yallock! Our only issue wasn’t with the jumps but the return of the terrifying, sizzle eating monsters… aka dirt patches placed conveniently in front of narrows… but with a bit of sitting back and kicking all was fine in the end.
Then my latest event was Friends of Werribee HT. I don’t know what it is with those Sizzle eating monsters but they are quite the chameleons. Here they took the form of the new white judges boxes… so our test was scoring extremely well up until we had to pass by the letter C. Despite his (very necessary monster evading) antics we still scored a respectable 68%! Then he did the most incredible XC round for a double clear and gave me one of the best feelings XC in a very long time and then jumped a very elusive clear round (one of only four in our section!!) in the SJ!! So we ended up in 5th and got a lovely rosette and a pair of Bell boots kindly donated by Mal Burne Saddlery! Woohoo!!!
You can watch our cross country video here
Sizzle at Friends of Werribee Photo courtesy Trent Stanley Photography
It was also Poppy’s first event and she was amazing! She did a lovely calm test (just need to work on accuracy) and did a super brave SJ (in the indoor!!!)with just two baby rails! Then was jumping so bravely XC until just before the 4th fence when she copped a look at the 3*** fences and decided that she had had quite enough for today and while have a bit of a (pathetic) spook she slipped over and that was the end of it. Neither of us were hurt but unfortunately we had to walk home. Such a shame as she was being so good!
Sisters Ruby, Emily and Bethany are all winning ribbons too
Meanwhile back at home all the little sisters are going great guns with Emily and Bethany winning SJ classes left, right and centre and Ruby is scaring the pants off everyone making the step up to 80cm on her adorable pony! They are now preparing to make the trip over for the Werribee Jeep Australian Showjumping Championships! With them luck!!
I am now aiming for Avenal HT with both Siz and Poppy and looking forward very much to the next time the starter counts me down.
So until next time, keep loving what we choose to do because few are lucky enough to experience it.
Alice 
