Erin’s March 2020 blog (before C-19)
It doesn’t feel like too long ago when we were preparing for the Rio Paralympics so to think that we are in 2020 is a pretty scary concept. It’s difficult to think of a summer event when we’ve had what feels like endless months of rain (it’s even raining as I write this) but plans have been made and the Paralympics are coming, whether we’re ready or not! At the end of last year, I made some big changes and moved both horses to be based in Lincoln with Sophie Wells. I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has been part of my journey, both past and present and I am always humbled by the commitment that people have had towards enabling me to pursue my dreams, so thank you to everyone – you know who you are.
Last month we had the first of our selection trials at Myerscough – our Winter Championships. We decided that Pimms’ competition schedule would start a little later in the year as otherwise it’s quite a long season for her and she is already very experienced, so this was Loki’s chance to take the spotlight at his first National Championships. His last big show was Bishop Burton, which was the beginning of August, so it had been a good few months and although he had felt like he was much more secure in his work and us as a partnership, I wasn’t totally sure what to expect. After five minutes of arriving the wind blew a pool of water that had collected on top of the stables all over me and I was absolutely drenched so I was hoping this wasn’t a sign of how the weekend was going to go!
I’d entered him for the gala night on the Friday evening and then he had two days of the individual test so it would be a similar duration to an International. He doesn’t yet have his own freestyle, so I borrowed Pimms’ music and slightly adapted the floorplan so it wasn’t quite the finished product, but it was a good chance to get him into the arena and to expose him to the busier atmosphere of the gala evening. Loki can be a little bit ‘looky’ not because he’s scared but because he’s nosey, but he kept his focus on me and I was really pleased with how he handled everything. I hadn’t seen any scores so after I got changed, I went back into the arena (which was lovely and heated!) to watch the others and suddenly my score was announced – 77% and a new PB! Loki had won the Grade 3s and had the second highest score of the night across all grades behind Sophie and Jorge – I’ll take that! It was quite a late night with the prizegiving around 10.30pm but I was absolutely thrilled with the start we’d had, although I did feel a bit of pressure to maintain it and I was hoping it wasn’t a total fluke!
The following day was the individual qualifier and Loki continued his super form with another solid test. Although it wasn’t faultless (do we ever think we’ve done a faultless test?) I was really pleased with the progress we’ve made and a score of 74.8% and first place confirmed what I had felt. At this point I was tempted to quit whilst I was ahead, but the following day was the Championship day, although we were only competing H/C as I hadn’t done any of the qualifiers with him, so he only had points from internationals. It was the same test so a good opportunity to improve on some of the areas that weren’t as strong the previous day and he didn’t disappoint. The work felt more consistent and for the third time over the weekend I came out with a smile on my face, a 76% score - and another PB was the icing on the cake. Loki also managed to blindfold himself on the way out of the arena when he shook his head so hard his ears came off and fell over his eyes. The clapping very quickly turned to laughter as members of the audience noticed what he had done, fortunately, after a brief pause of realisation that he could no longer see, Loki very cautiously walked out the arena so that his ears could be removed and he could see again!
Looking back over the last four years it’s amazing to think how much has changed and there’s a sense of accomplishment to have gone from a competitor who kept narrowly missing out on team selection to having done a European Championship and a World Equestrian Games with a medal of each colour to show for it. The Paralympics is the big event still missing from my CV, but whether this will be the year I’ll get a chance to change that – I guess we’ll soon find out!