"Last week was very busy for me, especially considering that I didn’t do any competitions!

Competency complacency

On Tuesday I had the theory part of my CPC (certificate of professional competence), which I have to do in order to be able to drive the lorry before I turn 21 (but if I had my own way I wouldn’t bother with it as I turn 21 in less than 6 weeks anyway). I thought that I had done enough revision for it, but when the first question came up I began to doubt myself as I had absolutely no idea what the answer was. Thankfully, the questions became much easier and I managed to pass it! Now I just have to do the practical part of the test so fingers crossed for that!

World Class trials

I also had my World Class final selection trial so Mum and I braced ourselves for an overnight stay at the beginning of November. Fortunately, it was being held at Addington so we could have hook-up, meaning that we stayed plenty warm enough for the duration. We arrived with Wiz (Wurlizer) on Thursday afternoon with plenty of time before our free ride. All of the riders were only known as numbers for the selection process, so I was known as number three throughout! We also weren’t told who the selectors were and we only found out when we arrived to ride. The selectors were Andrew Gardner and Monica Theodorescu and, for the first part of the process, we had to work our horses as we would at home without any outside help.

I was pleased with how this went apart from Wiz got a bit keen in his changes and just wanted to do 1-time changes, but we got some 2s eventually! The second day's riding consisted of a test; I rode the Inter I, followed by a session with Monica. I was disappointed with my test as Wiz hadn’t competed since the Nationals and, as a result, he didn’t feel confident going in a competition outline. However, I had a very good session with Monica afterwards and we really improved. The final part of the process, and the part that I was most worried about, was the interview. I had done a lot of preparation for the interview as I was very nervous about it, but I was pleasantly surprised! It wasn’t nearly as bad as I had been expecting and I was very pleased with how it went. Now I will just have to wait and see if my efforts were good enough to get me onto World Class.

A golden session

Finally, I had another Regional Foundation Squad training session at High Meadows. I took Dante (Headmore Downtopia) for my lesson with Jill Day and he was a very good boy. I had an excellent lesson and Jill really liked him. I also had another session on the mechanical horse and Michelle said that I was much better this time, but I really struggled to get it to half halt. It is very sensitive and if you pull too hard it slows to a walk, but if you don’t pull hard enough it doesn’t change at all. I did eventually get the hang of it, but it did take a while... well, nearly the entire session! To finish, I had my review with Anne and our new co-ordinator, Tasha. They were very pleased with my progress and I got put onto Gold, so, all in all, it was a very good day."