EPWORTH EQUESTRIAN CENTRE SHOW CROSS 27/05/07 -

It was raining and i mean throwing it down, but it was show time and not even the weather was going to stop me from trying to win and get my hands on the money. We arrived with little time to spare, we quickly registered our arrival at the secs office leona number twenty two, and myself number 19, i was riding at 1.03pm for the show jumping phase and twenty minutes later, for the cross country i only got on at 12.55pm in a bit of a panic but i managed a fifteen minute warm up because due to the weather everything was running a little bit late. at 1.10pm i went nervously into the ring, feeling ever so slightly cautious due to the ground been a little slippy, although i was only the novice phase with jumps up to 2'6 and xc jumps up to 2'9, and i'm used to going in the 3'3 classes i was still doubtful of my performance. It started off a little unsmooth and jayde was pulling but she settled down and turned it into the dream clear round, then i walked for ten minutes before popping the practice xc fence a couple of times to get jaydes mind into the next part of the competition. We set off strong on the xc course and considering how long it was only had two stops giving forty penalties overall, This left me and Jayde in the top ten finishing line.

Leona took molly, in for sj who really wasn't going to perform well in the down pour we was having and she got 16 faults, even though mistakes set aside it was a very stylish round, and in the xc leona missed out a couple of the more challenging fences leaving her with no chance of a high position finish. But we did all enjoy our ride.

A couple of days ago Leona recieved a letter saying she had placed in the top 30 of the region in dressage and had qualified for the Stonelege dressage championships, but dressage isn't leonas favourite discipline and she decided she wasn't going to be in the finals at willerby next weekend.

As for me after i finish my A level exams in 08, i want a gap year & i have decided i wanted to do something horse related for a year, to earn some money before uni, so an apprenticeship or yard work and so i can really concentrate just on jayde, showing and horses without any school work, which would be something i've never had the chance to do. I look forward to that. Anyway its the Annual 102nd Messingham show next week and i'm in the intermediate and open jumper classes, see you there!!

Talk to you soon
Laura Salmon.