EQUINE - Young Riders Blog Dec 2017
1 Dec 2017
DECEMBER BLOG
NORTH WINNER: LEIGH-ANN ALLAN, 21 FROM PERTHSHIRE
Merry Christmas Everyone and a happy new year!!!! Hope you all had a lovely time over the festive period and enjoyed eating lots of chocolate and cake!!
December was a rather quite month for dee jay and I after all the excitement of having a lesson with Sir Mark Todd! Dee Jay had a wee week off afterwards to bring him back down to earth again and then the snow and ice hit!! Dee Jay was stable bound for a wee while due to the ice, so I was doing lots of lunging and double mucking out! Now the ice has started to thaw we are back out doing lots of hacking and fitness work to work off that holiday belly and I’m back at the gym too!!!
While my horsey life was quite my other life was eventful with extra shifts at work, helping my friend with her last two charity events and a big decision of deciding to leave university. This is a big change as I’m now moving into the big bad world properly but I’m so excited to see what adventures lie ahead.
With entering a new year, I have been thinking a lot about 2017 all the challenges, the setbacks, the success and the laughs and I have to say its been a mega year. I set out the year aiming to do my first BE event starting with a BE80 and aiming to progress to a BE90. Never in my wildest of imagination would I have thought I would be able to start the year off double clear at BE90, gain three top ten finishes and finish the year clear cross country at my first Novice!! Never mind all the other successes that has happened outside of eventing. I’ve travelled 100’s of miles to training and competitions and I can honestly say I’m totally addicted to this sport!! I look at the photos on my wall and I remember all the moments of that day the mistakes I made, the mad panic, the countless wrong turns trying to get to the event but overall the joy, happiness and laughs I’ve had at every single event I went to this year. Eventing is hard and requires so much time and money and dedication and often a lot of disappointment. I’ve been asked would I give it up and trade it for a ‘normal’ life where I can afford to go on holidays, have long lies, days off to lounge around and my answer is quite obviously no. No matter how hard things get I will never forget the days where everything went right, where I chased my dream and had a blast doing so. For isn’t that what life is for... chasing your dreams and making memories that will last a lifetime.
In 2018 I’ll continue to chase my dream and if I don’t make it then I’ll know it’s not because I didn’t try and I’m sure I will gain lots more fun memories to last me my lifetime. So, my aim for 2018 is to continue doing what I love, to keep chasing my dream and to have a fantastic time on my amazing horse.