With the nationals looming just over the horizon, I had my last outing before we leave later this week. We took Bracks (Headmore Boadicia) to Wellington for the advanced medium freestyle championship. It was a very strong class this year and we weren’t competing until gone nine in the evening, so by the time we got into the ring it was dark and quite chilly. As a result Bracks was a bit tense at the start of the test but settled by the canter work. Unfortunately, this proved costly but we still finished 4th so it was very confidence building for this coming week.

Unfortunately we did have a rather sad goodbye. Carol, who has been our head girl for the last 4 years, has opted for a change of career and will now become a personal trainer. We had a lovely meal to thank her for everything she has done for us and gave her a couple of things to remember us by! We wish her the best of luck with everything she does in the future but we will definitely be seeing more of her as she is still keeping her horse with us.

We also got to see Charlotte (Dujardin) for the first time since she became a double Olympic champion! We had an awesome weekend’s training and a wonderful celebratory dinner on the Saturday evening. Charlotte also brought down one of her medals which was so amazing to be able to see one up close and wear it. It was surprisingly heavy but really awesome.

So now the nationals are nearly upon us and we have everything crossed for a good show, but at least with five horses going I have plenty of chances to get a good test or two.