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Our first dressage competition of 2018
Yesterday the sun was bright, the sky was clear. It was the perfect day for a dressage competition. Those of you who have read a few of my stories will likely know that I like to look for the lessons in things. Yesterday’s dressage competition was no different. So here are my learnings. 1. I […]
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The year I fell in love with competing
In 2015, I fell in love with competing and in doing so, I fell in love with dressage all over again. While this may not seem like a big revelation, for me it is. Throughout 2014, I questioned whether I would ever compete again as a result of several bad experiences. My life had changed […]
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The night we nearly drowned
There are days when you feel like Midas, everything turns to gold, everything goes just as you’d planned. And then there are the other type of days. The ones where nothing goes right. If your lucky you’ll be with someone pretty cool. If you even luckier you will know even in the moment that kind […]
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My 2018 Riding Goals
There is something promising about the new year. It’s an opportunity to start afresh, set your sights on new things and new journeys. I love pouring over the competition calendar at the start of each year and planning for the coming year. A really important part of planning is setting goals. I’ve always set goals […]
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2017 – A year in Review – Equestrian Blog Hop
2017 was a whirlwind of changes to in my career and a different focus in my riding. A promotion at work saw my professional life ramp up. With Nonie and I being between elementary and medium level, competing took a back seat and the focus was squarely on learning. And I completed my first 12 […]
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Equine Ambition – November Blog Hop
When I think ambition, I am almost instantly transported back to my Grade 11 English class and Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I loved English, Macbeth not so much but I was very excited when the November Blog Hop topic was revealed as Ambition. The evolution of my ambition Even as a teenager I was ambitious. I wanted to […]
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EquiMind Summer Championships 2017
What if you could wake up at 6am, have a relaxing breakfast and then make your way out to a competition, plait your horse up, compete and be back home for lunch? Well that is exactly what I did this morning for the EquiMind Summer Championships. In July and August I competed in EquiMind’s monthly […]
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What is in a dressage score?
As dressage riders we have all had that experience of going into the ring and feeling like we rode an awesome test, only to receive our test sheets and be disappointed with the score. Sometimes it may be that what we were feeling and what the judges saw were two different things, but there are […]
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EquiMind Online Dressage Competitions
In June, Nonie and I were fortunate enough to be selected for sponsorship by online equestrian competition company EquiMind. The British based company cater for riders across a variety of disciplines including dressage, showing horsemanship and western vaulting and even have specialised classes for blind horses. I had only recently become aware of the […]
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Lessons learnt in my medium debut
Two weekends ago Nonie and I danced down the centreline of our first ever medium dressage tests. In the week leading up to this competition my body was filled with a maelstrom of emotions. Excitement, nerves and pride. While we didn’t make take the dressage world by storm, it was a huge accomplishment personally and […]