Apprenticeship Ambassador: Blog 4

The last four weeks have been particularly busy, from scoring PB’s to preparing for the winter months, let me fill you in on what I’ve been up to…

It was amazing to achieve a new personal best. This was in the Advanced Medium championship test, which is ridden at regionals/nationals. I scored 68.28% and won the class. After working hard on the movements and improving my sitting trot, that included lots of no stirrup work, it was a relief that all the training paid off! There is always room for improvement, which comes with practice. I knew my first halt wasn’t as good as it could have been so I will continue to work on this at home. Those extra few marks could make a huge difference!

Before my PB, I wanted to gain my PSG qualification from the Advanced 101 test. I had a brilliant training session with successful international rider and coach, Bert Rutten. We continued working on the advanced medium movements and touched on the PSG work towards the end of our session. I was able to confidently ride the lines of 3 & 4 tempi changes whilst asking for a bit more power from the canter (they felt incredible!).

I managed to score above the qualifying 62% required, with lots of 7’s and 8’s in my sheet, which was amazing. I’m still very new to this level so I did feel the pressure, but I just rode the test as if I was schooling at home. This made me feel more comfortable and I went into it with a better frame of mind. Although a few mistakes crept in, I was able to recognise them faster and correct them before they happened.

My goal is to qualify for the Advanced Medium Gold regionals again for the winter season ready for the regionals at the start of next year. I already have 5 points and I need a total of 14, so I’m on my way to getting my qualification before the 31^st December… Fingers crossed!

Now the seasons are starting to change, going into winter is definitely the most challenging time of year. I’m going to set myself short term goals. I find this is the best way to keep me motivated as it highlights how much you achieve. I’ve dusted off my wellies, waterproofs, hats, gloves and thermals: Preparation is key 😋 The shorter days are a shock to the system but planning training around bad weather and knowing that competitions could be cancelled does help. Every scenario needs to be taken into consideration!

Having a balance between work and social life is a key part to continuing success and being motivated to do well. I love my job, but I took some much-needed time off and spent a long weekend in Valencia with a friend. I definitely needed the break to relax and recharge after a hectic few months. It was only 5 days but of course I missed the horses massively… I wonder if they missed me?

I’m really enjoying module 5. Creating the fitness and feeding plans has been really interesting. This plays such a huge part in horse management and training. Jess, my Trainer Coach, has been super helpful (as always!) with helping me understand each part of the module in the best way possible and guiding me in the right direction of completing the work to the best of my ability.

Last week we had a visit from our Spillers representative to weigh all the horses before going into winter. She was very happy with everyone which was fab!

Let’s see what happens over the next month!

Emilia