This morning I awoke at the lovely time of 5:30 am to make the three hour long car journey to Liverpool to compete. Once there we went into a heated room – which was amazing and rare – to sort out who was riding which horses for the dressage. Our team drew first yet I was one of the last riders to compete, it was very nerve wracking watching all the other riders warming up before myself. It was very difficult for the riders to warm up also as firstly the warm up ring had fences in the middle, making it difficult to practice any circles or bends, and then there were other riders in there other than ourselves. This included someone jumping a 3 year old over these 1 metre fences which became very distracting, and a kid was being led around on a leadrope which made the affair very confusing!

However when I got on I was anxious as the horse looked very slow, he was about 16 hh grey but I can’t remember his name unfortunately! I gave him a tap with the whip once I was on to show that I meant business, and then he was one of the most pleasant horses I have ever ridden, he went so smoothly and listened to my every aid, he really was the dream horse! When it was my turn to go into the ring I was super nervous, and then was so silly and forgot to do a circle in the test! I was really confused by the judge as I thought I had been eliminated, however she just asked me to do it again so I just went ahead with it.

Turns out I only lost two marks for missing the circle, and on the lunch break we passed the scores around and it turns out I rode that horse the best out of all the other riders! The rest of our teams’ scores were also very close so we were very excited to start the jumping. When they were demoing the horses I knew which one I was going on before it even moved, it was a 17. 2 hh chestnut with a stripe down her face, and her name was Tango which I found so fitting. I was one of the first to ride so I was soon on and Tango was also lovely to ride. My only complaint was that she was a little heavy footed when cantering and had a tendency to get away with herself a little, however she was easy enough to collect and we had a lovely clear round – with clipping one fence.

Then there was a bit of commotion as a girl fell off on the course and somehow broke her collarbone! Thankfully there was only one rider left to wait and soon she was in an ambulance and in safe hands. Afterwards the Liverpool team went to the hospital, leaving teams Derby and Leicester to work out the scores. Amazingly enough, team Derby was the only team where everyone stayed on, causing us to avoid a nasty 30 penalties. When the results were worked out, we found out we did a smashing job with coming team first, team captain Amelia coming individual fourth, Abi third, and I came first!! It was truly amazing as I haven’t won anything whilst competing at university before, so today was clearly a good day for me despite having a few hiccups, and has really given me confidence in my growth as a rider.

The only sad thing was that Liverpool had forgotten to bring the rosettes – its the best bit! – so we are having to wait to a later date to receive them, which I am rather looking forward to as I would like the proof that I managed to win!