Will let the pictures speak for themselves... a brief & personal taste of behind the scenes during our fortnight in Rio. It was a fantastic experience and I feel so privileged to have been involved with the USVI team there!! Despite all the woes beforehand, Rio delivered... Obrigada Brasil !!
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It has been a quiet couple of months in terms of training and competitions with Rhapsody. We have just been gradually chipping away at his fatness versus fitness battle. Lots of trotting up the hills and sessions in the school have toned his tummy but I have deliberately not made any plans until I am 100% happy that he is 100%.... which I am not totally convinced about yet. He is fine in himself though, cheeky and greedy as ever and looks great with a very shiny healthy coat thanks to my sponsors Simple System Horse Feeds and Fly Away and Groom Away!!
There has been more than enough to keep me busy of course with my trip to Rio looming - despite not going to compete there is still all the admin to deal with as well as deciding/ordering on our kit for the ceremonies, ordering embroidered polo shirts for the team and supporters and the PINS!! Everything has now arrived and apart from mild panic about how I am going to get all the gear into a suitcase - we are pretty much ready to go!! Watching the Olympics the past 2 weeks has added to the excitement! The coverage on the BBC and online has been fantastic and is great to have the chance to watch world class sports that we wouldn't normally see on mainstream TV. We have of course now become experts at all the different sports!! There had been a lot of negative publicity in the run up to these Games but they have gone ahead and have had all of us on the edge of our seats with nail biting finishes, bad luck stories and the some of the greatest fairytale endings! The Paralympics are now facing their challenge and the financial position has been well reported. I think it will only make the athletes ever more determined to go there and show what they are made of. Am looking forward to being able to cheer on the USVI track athlete Ivan Espinosa but also get across to the equestrian centre to watch friends competing in the para dressage competitions as well as the many other sports on the agenda..... along with a dash of sightseeing if there's time!! A lot of people are asking if I am excited about the trip..... YES YES YES!! My holiday in the Virgin Islands seems a long time ago now…I had a fantastic time... in the sun and sea and catching up with friends and family and being there for my Dad's 80th birthday together with my Grandad who I travelled with at 103 years old!! I came back from the islands, started a new job and began a plan to get Raps and myself fit again after a couple of lazy weeks – we had both had a proper holiday to recharge our batteries. It was very welcome and long overdue for us both! It was countdown to Hartpury at the beginning of July and Rhapsody had put on quite a bit of weight with his nights in the field. Plenty of hacking was the order to begin with and with a new surface being put down in our school the hacking continued… and with issues with the surface we hacked some more! Luckily we have lots of lovely hills surrounding us which really got Rhaps working!
Then the setbacks began… when we did finally get to work in the school Rhaps was so crazed by the new surface he literally threw himself all over the place like a three year old. Not only did he seriously test my stick ability, he also seriously messed up his back, shoulders and neck! Gill Maybury to the rescue and a short break in our work schedule. I was getting a bit concerned at how little we had been schooling and how quickly Hartpury was creeping up on us! Setback 2… Randomly Rhaps picked up a screw in his frog. By lucky coincidence it did not go straight in and didn’t do any damage but a call out to the vet was still sensible, a poultice and another few days off. I felt that Rhaps was still not right – the hill work definitely shows up any tightness and/or soreness in his shoulders and on the day she was leaving for a holiday in Australia Gill came out again and treated him again! Special thanks to Gill for all her out of hour treatments! Few more days off but I blitzed him with the laser a couple of times a day, the magnetic rug and regular carrot stretching exercises. I was getting concerned about Rhapsody’s lack of work and lack of fitness for Hartpury. Then inexplicably Rhaps just seemed to completely deflate. His energy levels hadn’t been great but now everything felt very laboured.. even hacking. Believing this was still a fitness issue I kept the sessions short, varied and regular. I was due to go to a local BD competition as a warm up for Hartpury and thought I would use that as a test. But I didn’t go – instead I called the vet to come and give Rhaps a check-up and blood test if necessary to find out what we were dealing with. Steve Brooks of GVG Equine came out – Rhaps was moving well – was even quite excited about being lunged in the car park – so no obvious signs of anything amiss. Reluctantly I withdrew from Hartpury. There was no way I could take him with doubts about his health and he was seriously short of work by now!! The blood tests showed a higher than normal white blood count so he may have been fighting off some infection or low grade virus that never showed any outward symptoms… we don’t really know for sure. Steve recommended a course of B12 supplement, continuing the work to further improve his fatness/fitness and see how we got on over the next couple of weeks. To date Rhapsody is feeling better – thankfully getting some of his spark back even in this warm weather!! We don’t have anything we need to aim for in the immediate future so I will just gradually increase his workload back to peak fitness levels. And he is now feeling almost back to his usual self But… with less than 50 days to the 2016 Paralympics… I am so excited to say that I will be going to Rio!! Sadly not to compete but to represent the VI National Paralympic Committee which we formed before London. The islands have a track athlete who was awarded a wild card and we will be there to support and cheer him on. Very pleased to be involved in another Paralympic Games albeit not as I had envisaged but this is an absolute privilege!! More details next month!! Wooo hooo..... To be honest it was with mixed emotions that I packed up the lorry and headed off to Belgium with Rhapsody and Debby Winchester for our next CPEDI3*. I really wanted to go after the tremendous time we had there last year but also wondered if I could be totally focused now that Rio was not on the cards for us. I had to get over this personal hurdle....
We had a good journey there and Rhaps was soon rolling in his new bed right on cue! I did not plan to do anything other than give him a leg stretch later that day which we organised to be in the competition arena. He felt bursting out of his skin but I resisted the temptation to do anything more than walk and stretch. Thursday was the trot up and we were last to go before the host Belgium team... gave us time to do a little schooling, a bath for Rhaps and after he cantered through the trot up - attended the popular opening ceremony. The draw was kind to us and we did not have a horrendously early time on Friday morning. I had been concerned about Rhapsody's energy levels on the run up to this competition and during the initial warm up indoors he did nothing to ease my worries. I kept the warm up to a minimum until we went outdoors to the 10 minute holding arena. Then, Rhaps came alive and bronked his way round for the next 10 minutes! It was mildly amusing especially as I could see a number of spectators outside the marquee watching us rather than the competitor in the arena! Our time came and all I could think was - just ride the bloody test... it will be fine! And it was fine - apart from a very little explosion in the canter. One judge described it as "playful" - the others said 'tense'..... well maybe it was but I was very pleased with the test, Rhapsody's energy levels and enthusiasm and felt there were more positives than negatives. While standing at the live score feeds and after the test had finished, we stood next to one of the judges who proceeded to comment to a colleague "I came down hard on Lee Frawley because her horse was a bit up... but was lenient with the Saudi rider" Good for the Saudi rider but black marks for this judge.... who admittedly only voiced what we all already know about dressage judging - but really?? Saturday we had a very late time.... 5:12 and so passed the day by watching a ton of dressage and also catching up with old friends. I changed tactics with the warm up to deal with the "tense" issues and after a really good, mistake free test was pleased to improve my placing and my percentage in the more difficult test... and no mention of the dreaded word "tense" from any of the judges throughout! I felt it was a bit of a breakthrough... having Rhapsody really revved up in the energy stakes and fine tuning my warm up I now can't wait to bring this forward to our next international at Hartpury in July. If Rhaps had these energy levels all the time I would have been more prepared to deal with the warm up etc but now I can at least build on this knowledge for the future. in the meantime I have a fortnight's holiday in the USVI visiting family and weather permitting Rhaps has a fortnight's holiday in the field. February was a rather quiet affair after the excitement of our Holland trip but some rest was needed for us all after that ordeal and with me getting a filthy cold on top of it all, Rhapsody’s ‘easy’ time was extended by another week. We both ticked over with lots of hilly hacks past the pesky pigs and a few lunging sessions when the school wasn’t frozen or flooded.
We have also managed a couple of schooling sessions at a nearby yard and Raps has been feeling very well and full of himself. At the end of February we did some BD classes as a little outing. Doing 2 tests in sitting trot within half an hour was going to be a real test of my hip’s improvement following a return to the gym with the physio for more strengthening work. Raps was very enthusiastic but I survived - and an unexpected bonus was coming 2nd in a strong field. Looking ahead to next month, entries for the international competition at Waregem in Belgium have been sent off and our travel arrangements are being made. It was a great show last year and obviously word has spread as there are entries from 18 different nations with all 5 continents being represented! It should be a great atmosphere! Following hot on the heels of our trip to Belgium will be a holiday in the Virgin Islands to see family and catch up with friends… April is going to be a good month! It has been difficult to make myself sit down and write this blog… we went to the Netherlands with the highest hopes of getting the scores needed to overtake the Argentinean rider and thereby secure our place on the rankings list for Rio. Rhapsody felt fantastic, really energetic and up for the task ahead.
Our trip to the venue was uneventful – if longer than I expected but we arrived just as it was getting dark and in a mini blizzard…. It was very cold! We did all the usual steps on arrival - taking Rhaps for a walk to stretch his legs after the journey… he insisted on rolling in the indoor school! Putting extra shavings in his stable, fitting up his water bucket in the hope that he would not play with it too much and drown his bedding, make up feeds – and unload the lorry. The trot up was the next day and riding times in the competition arena had been allocated by the organisers. I had a time of 8:30 which at least meant that we would have him out to work – then he could rest before we got him ready for the vet’s inspection. Finally it was time to head off and find our hotel & some dinner! For a number of reasons the other riders that had the same riding time as me did not show which meant that Rhapsody and I had the entire warm up arena and then competition arena to ourselves to give him a good forward going stretch and ride through some of the test movements. I was very pleased with his thoroughness and forwardness – he felt quite fresh which was good! I always finish the training with a strong canter/trot down the centre line without halting because he has taken it into his head to halt at X no matter what I say, so we did that a few times till I felt confident that he was not taking control. The trot up went absolutely fine – despite having been given a time of 4:30 they ran incredibly early and so were screaming for everyone to head for the vet check station. Rhaps barely had a walk much less a trot before he was up in front of the judges and vets but he strutted his stuff and there was no worry on that front. Thursday’s time was 1:14 but we were still up and at the yard bright and early so that Angela could walk Rhapsody in the main arena before 8 – around and up the centre line to face the “judge” sitting in the box – something that sometimes catches horses unawares no matter how experienced they are. We had our plaiting/tacking up times all planned to avoid any last minute panics and right on time I got on Rhaps to warm up. Despite riding this test countless times I still had gone over and over it in my head – planning each move so my preparation would not desert me in times of nerves – which it has in the past! The test went very well – until the final centre line when despite using my stick to remind Rhaps to keep going forward he just planted at X. The chief judge rang the bell for an error of course… and so 2 marks deducted. It was a good halt though for 7’s so on balance I was probably no worse off than if I had tried to pick up the trot and persuade him to the G marker. It is definitely something I am going to have to take him to task on at a local show in the near future! Friday saw a similar routine with an early morning walk followed by an afternoon riding time. Feeling very focused and pleased with Rhapsody’s work and attitude we entered the arena determined to get the score we needed for the last few rankings points. I thought the test went really well… he didn’t stick in the pirouettes, the counter canter was fine, pulled off all the simple changes so I finished thinking that we had done enough. Walking Rhaps around to cool down I was stunned when they announced the score. We had missed is by the smallest of margins - 0.16%!! Totally gutted! When all the scores came up on the live screen TV I was shocked to see a 34 mark discrepancy between the judges! That is a pretty huge amount! I did have a word with one of the other judges who ironically I had heard mention the day before about the differences in marks when one rider had a difference of 15 between judges. Basically there is nothing I could do about it.. and although I know this is dressage and if you can’t take the subjectivity of it don’t even bother entering the competition – but it was still difficult to swallow especially as my low scoring judge had not generally scored all riders lower than the other judges – just me and one other rider – the rest she had scored above. I just really could not believe it – but I felt Rhapsody had gone really well, tried hard and was a pleasure to ride and for once I could say that I had kept my brain in gear throughout the test. But that was that… we would have to resort to applying for one of the 3 wild cards available – along with every other country who did not qualify a team or individual. A long shot! As we did not qualify for the music decided to come home on Saturday, a long drive back to the ferry but we were in the front of the queue for boarding as the ferry arrived and started to unload the freight vehicles. Suddenly there was a surge of over 100 people who all ran towards the ferry to try and get on board. The port staff all went into action but there was little they could do against such numbers. Very quickly water cannons were blasting the ferry – I wonder if they are usually used to wash it down as they seemed to already be in place - or maybe they were brought in quickly by the police? Anyway from our view there was a lot of people running around, port vehicles driving around and general mayhem. More than 5 hours later with the riot police there in large numbers the infiltrators were removed in dozens of police vans. Throughout the standoff I was able to pop in the back when it was safe to do so to check Rhapsody and offer water and feed and lots of hay and carrots but he was getting fed up as we all were! Eventually we were escorted to another ferry for our homeward journey… finally back home at 2 a.m. UK time – 3 a.m. Dutch time – poor Rhaps had been on that lorry for 16 hours! If I had any doubt about it before – which I didn’t - Rhapsody’s wonderful temperament and attitude really shone through!! If nothing else let this be a lesson to everyone - be prepared... we had plenty of feed, water and hay on board for Rhapsody thank goodness - and a few snacks for ourselves!! We are both having a little break to recover from the ordeal but will get him back out again fairly soon as he is so fit and well. And as for Angela – there is never a dull moment when she comes to groom for me! Thanks goes to her for keeping Rhapsody looking great and me calm and positive! Hard to believe that it’s nearly the end of another year! Incredibly we have been to four internationals in 2015 and I am not bankrupt yet thanks to some generous funding from the Prior Family Trust in the Virgin Islands and a well-timed tax refund! Every international is a tremendous opportunity to gain experience not only for riding the tests in a competitive arena but also developing the most suitable feeding programme, preparation planning and warm up routine. We have a great time too! Plans are well underway now for the next 3* competition in The Netherlands in January…. Vet check booked, hire lorry booked, hotel booked and ferry booked – have I forgotten anything? December is always a difficult month to get consistent work into Rhaps with the short days but we have gotten through it and looking forward to extra time over the Christmas break to get back in the groove. With a stroke of brilliant timing Rhaps is going to train with Andrew J Murphy the first week of January to set him up nicely for the competition and to give me a little break during the week to get organised before I join them at the weekend! Despite none of us knowing yet who will qualify for Rio, the deadlines are nonetheless stacking up… the first being to give detailed lists of all feed, medicines, vet supplies and supplements that would need to be imported into Brazil so their government can give approval for import licences by the end of December. If it is not on the form you won’t be able to take it – so drawing up a meticulous list to send out before the new year. Keeping track of all the deadlines is a real headache so will also be marking my calendar with all the critical dates during time off for the holidays. Our qualification to Rio will be dependant upon what teams are in the top 7 overall... I am reliant on either Canada or the USA to get themselves in the top 7 following the two competitions in Florida in January. That outcome is out of my hands so I - just - need to make sure I get the best possible results in the The Netherlands to ensure I am in the top 2 individual riders for the remaining nations in the 'Americas' section. 2016 is going to be an exciting year – and busy if we manage to qualify for Rio! A huge thank you to everyone who has supported Rhapsody and I, sponsors and friends alike – through good times and bad! All to play for in January…. no pressure then! During the last week of October we headed to Bury Farm in Bedfordshire for our last CPEDI of 2015.... this was a new venue in the international calendar and thankfully close to home! With no accommodation on site I was grateful for the loan of a lorry with living for Angela and I - complete with heating as the forecast was not great. A good drive up there on the Tuesday morning before the trot up in front of the vet and judges... It is always a tense moment - not sure why because Rhapsody just stormed through as usual! We were so fortunate to be in the permanent stable block - could that have been because I was actually the very first completed entry according to the secretary? Whatever the reason we were extremely thankful when the heavens opened Tuesday night and everywhere flooded! Not packing any wellies was not my best idea!
I was asked to be foreign riders' rep and attended the draw for the first day... not sure how I managed to draw myself first in the class but at least we were riding in the afternoon. The morning was still wet and horrid... but during a gap in the rain Angela managed to get Rhaps out for a leg stretch. I was pleased with our test and felt that all our planning and decisions on preparation had gone to plan... The next day our order was reversed and I was last to go in the class. I decided to reduce our warm up time to keep Rhapsody fresh and we had another mistake free test for 6th place again. That evening - before the final draw for the freestyle I was advised by the organisers that there had been a error with the international judges ratio on the first day in the grades 3 & 4 and basically it meant that the scores would not count for rankings points for Rio. There was a huge amount of entries from all around the world - all there with Rio in mind and these scores were important to all of us! The decision was made to run the grade 3 & 4 team tests again in the morning before the freestyle. This was a blow to the organisers but they rallied round to amend the timetable so that all the classes could be catered for. Unfortunately for me this meant - going in the same drawn order as the first day I was in first of all... but this time the class was starting at 7 a.m!!!! This was a crucial class for us and despite a solid test I was disappointed not to have improved on my original score. We had a long break during the day - at which time I decided that it would be foolish to drive home that night after such a long and tiring day - around the M25 - in rush hour on a Friday night and asked to stay another night. We had been up since 5 a.m. and as rider/driver I did not relish the thought... not to mention getting back to the yard late, in the dark and then having to take the lorry back to its owner and collect my car... so Saturday it was! But not before we had the chance to ride through our freestyle! At 4 p.m. - we dragged Rhapsody out again and with the minimum of warm up we rode to the sounds of Here Comes Summer and Walking on Sunshine. I didn't quite trust my timing which left me in the wrong place for the walk but managed to quickly get back on track and finish well - with a satisfying 4th place! With 70% from one of the judges it was a good result to finish a very good competition! It certainly had a been few days of drama and we returned home shattered... Rhapsody was fortunate enough to have some physio thanks to Gill Maybury and Steve Brooks followed by some time off. I on the other hand was at the gym bright and early on the Monday morning for my own physio session.... but sadly no time off for me! Now I am back in the saddle and looking forward to the next couple of months training and getting to some local competitions - weather permitting. It looks as though we will be aiming for an international in the Netherlands in January, if the show is approved by the FEI. January will be the crunch time for Rio so still all to play for!! It’s been a busy month.. not least because the normal routine has to be packed in to ever shortening days. This is always a tricky time of year – the last week in October before the clocks go back… not quite enough daylight hours before or after work. On the plus side though I have seen some amazing sun rises and sun sets recently and have been thankful that the weather has been unusually dry on the whole. Hickstead was something of a comedy act which started by me missing the turning to the showground making us late after a considerable detour, then forgetting my gloves – back to the lorry, forgetting our number – back to the lorry again. By the time I was in the warm up arena we had less than 5 minutes till our starting time. I cantered a few circles and decided to ride through our first test simply as a warm up for the second. First though we had to get past the scary carousel horses that were leaning by the entrance to the arenas. For a horse that doesn’t usually spook Rhapsody took a real dislike to them and by the time I coaxed him past he was well and truly wired! He snorted down the centre line in a passage kind of way and unbelievably we got to the end with no mistakes. It had been such a farce up to that point that I really did have to smile as I walked him to cool him down before our next class. I was very pleased with the second test – we were both more relaxed. When the results came out I had to chuckle - we came 2nd in both! The day did leave me questioning my normal warm up routine and I decided to shake it up a bit at Oldencraig a few weeks later as part of our preparation for the international at Bury Farm from 27/30 October. There are some times when you can only test out a new plan at a competition – it goes against the grain a little but of course you hope that it pays off. Throwing away the test at Oldencraig will, I believe, pay off at Bury… time will tell but I had Rhaps much more forward going which is how most judges like to see him and I like to ride him. Our day at Hickstead wasn’t all smiles… Rhapsody broke his double bridle. As much as I don’t want to think about Christmas just yet, looks like I have started writing my wish list for Santa! This weekend I start to pack for Bury Farm and as usual I want to thank the great team of friends and sponsors who all do their bit to help Rhaps and I trot down the centre line!! The hype surrounding Rio 2016 has truly gone up a gear with the passing of the milestone - #1yeartogo! There is not a day goes by that I am asked by someone – have you and Rhapsody qualified? Or, when will you know?
The situation is that the cut-off date for gaining qualifying points is the end of January 2016. My attendance – or not – at Rio will depend on the position of the teams in the rankings list – it is not a straightforward matter of getting X number of points and you’re in. So I will be watching the team results in the remaining competitions this year with interest, the European Para Dressage Champs as well as competitions in Texas and Italy. Also I am pleased to say that the international at Bury Farm at the end of October which looked to have been cancelled has been reinstated – an administration error it seems – so another opportunity for teams – and me – to gain some more points! The solid scores we got at Bishop Burton last month meant a leap up of over 50 places on the Paralympic rankings list for me and we will be aiming to improve even more at Bury Farm. The excitement has been further increased because Regine Fitzner is in Rio for the Chef de Missions meeting and has been getting all sorts of useful information on the logistics, accreditation and accommodation, not to mention going to visit the venues. The VI are hoping to also qualify for the sailing and track events. It will be interesting to hear her stories when she gets a chance to come up for air! Rhapsody and I have had another really good weekend of training with Andrew J Murphy – the last before Andrew goes to the states to teach his clinics out there. As I sit and watch the pounding rain I can’t help thinking that it is a great time to jet off to the sunny and warm climes of Arizona and California!! Gill Maybury, Chiropractor, has been checking Rhaps regularly and although he has been fine under the saddle it did make me realise that he was overdue having it checked. Ellie Martin of Bespoke Saddlery came to see us and was very pleased with the fit of the saddle with no alternations needed so that can be crossed off my list for now with a sigh of relief. Meanwhile I am looking forward to doing a couple of medium classes at the Dressage Masters at Hickstead at the weekend and plans are to go to the Area Festival at Oldencraig next month as a warm up before Bury Farm. We can only hope the weather takes a turn for the better by then!! |
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