Right from the word go I’ve always been around horses one of the advantages of coming from a horsey family. My family have always owned horses and one of my earliest riding memories is of me riding a big bay horse (BYRON) in from the field! I cannot remember a time without horses and as soon as I was old enough to ride properly I started getting lessons at the riding school down the road, as well as riding my brothers pony Lotty.

I also had experience with breeding at a very young age. My Gran owned a chestnut mare called Flighty who had been a successful eventer in her prime and she made the decision to breed from her. ORION was a gorgeous chestnut colt, born the day after my Birthday on the 26th of June! Unfortunately he was diagnosed with a severe bone disease when he was just two years old which resulted in him being put down. Tragically, his mother, Flighty was also put down not long afterwards when she broke her leg in a field when she was staying away somewhere.

My fondest memories of the EQUESTRIAN CENTER PONIES from down the road would have to be the endless 'Pony Popping' competitions I attended where I always came home with stacks of rosettes. I feel that this was a crucial part in my riding career, even at such a young age, because I got to grips with riding many different horses on regular occasions. Something that I think has made me a more well-rounded rider. At this young age I also attended many fun riders and regularly went hunting. This created my love for cross country riding, the phase that is easily my strongest today!!

At six years old I got my first pony that I was proud to call my own, was the loveable JIMMY! He was a rather chubby bay gelding, who adored to be cuddled. I only owned him for three or four months because he improved my riding and confidence so much, that in that short space of time I was ready to move off ploddy safe Jimmy onto a more exciting 'wild' version!
 

This wild version came in the form of Clocky. My seventh birthday was the start of four fabulous years with BALFERN CLOCKWORK BUBBLE. A 12 2hh chestnut gelding. Even on the first day of owning him, I jumped the biggest I had ever jumped at that time-- A 2'6'' working hunter class, which to top off we won!!

Soon after this I started Eventing and show jumping. At just seven years of age I jumped 3’3’’ in a chase me Charlie. And regularly trained over 3’6’’ show jumping grids. We were also key members of pony club teams in Dressage, Show Jumping, and Eventing for every year of our partnership.
Furthermore I was selected to be part of our pony club stable management team where we won and qualified for the prestigous championships. In my final year with him we were regularly jumping double clears at Pony Club 2’9’’ One Day Events and gaining good placings. A very good achievement for a young rider on a pony with no previous Eventing experience.

However it wasn't all plain sailing with him, because he was tremendously spooky show jumping and cross country, so he taught me to really ride forwards to avoid elimination!! Clocky took me into the eventing scene and gave me my love for eventing and my wish to succeed and improve in all that I do. I think this thirst for knowledge and wish to improve is a very important trait to have in eventing. No one and nothing is ever perfect and so my wish for everything to be perfect means that I am constantly striving to improve. Something very important in such a tricky sport.

DOUBLE DUTCH (William) was a very special boy, and gave me some very special and memorable years of my life. At just 12 years old, he took me to my first open pony club one day event (BE Novice equivalent), where we came 8th. He was a fabulous hunter, always kept up with the horses, jumped everything, gates, wire, hedges, you name it. He also had the most wonderful cheeky personality, he loved cuddles and being naughty! He was a fabulous XC pony, but needed strong riding because he thought leaves were scary. He had the knack of spinning round at 100 mph leaving the rider dazed on the floor; I remember at my first ODE with him, I fell off 3 times!!

However I soon learnt how to ride him, and we evented very successfully for a number of years, being key members in all pony club teams. We achieved very good dressage score, always low 30’s and very often in the 20’s. We also regularly achieved marks of 75% unaffiliated dressage and gained 14 BD points in a very limited number of outings. We had many placings together at one day events and at Stockland Lovell unaffiliated novice we came 6th, the youngest and smallest combination there. Also we won an Intermediate ODE on a 27 dressage!! Not only were we successful, but I was frequently complimented on my riding and after a successful day at the Stonar Intermediate ISODE I was talent spotted by Stonar and invited to take part in a riding and academic exam. As a result of this I was offered a full riding scholarship and 10% off the school fees. We didn’t take up on this offer as having William in a different place to our other horses would have been very problematic. Furthermore friends had asked me to ride horses for them if they were having issues, something I have always enjoyed doing.  

After my first few years with William, we had progressed very well so I decided to take part in the British Eventing pony trials. He was so talented, and we always had good scores dressage and cross country and never had more than one or two show jumps down, but unfortunately he was kicked in the stifle at a dressage lesson, and had to be out of work for over a year, and it never happened. Which was such a shame, because he was and is such a talented pony. Selling him was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. But he has gone to a lovely home with a young girl and is enjoying teaching her about Eventing and dressage.

Whilst William was off work for a year I started Eventing my Gran's 15 3hh bay mare, IRISH ROSE. Rosie had been bought quite a few years ago for my Mum, Dad and Gran to hunt. Rosie was not built as an eventer (which is why Louise Skelton sold her to us) and that was never supposed to be her job. So when I started riding her we didn’t have high hopes. We simply hoped that she could allow me to have some fun whilst my own horse was out of action.

However, she was very successful. We always did double clears and although her dressage wasn’t very good to begin with, we soon remedied this and we were regularly getting placed. We were selected to ride for my pony club at the intermediate show jumping and Eventing area trials. Fairly impressive for a 13 year old on a horse she had only ridden for a few months. We came 3rd at the Eventing trials and qualified for the pony club championships at Shelford manor where we did a respectable dressage and a superb clear in the show jumping that was causing a lot of problems.

Although I do not ride her much anymore because I am concentrating on Belvedere, I still do some unaffiliated events every now and then on her, and every single event we did in 2009 we were placed in.
 
I have not done much BE with her as mostly she has to live off Bute as she has coffin joint problems, and therefore is not BE/FEI legal. However we did keep her off Bute long enough to do two BE90s in 2008 which were very successful. At Berrington we did a 33 double clear and came 7th, and at Solihull we got a fantastic 29 in the dressage!!

Not only do I event Rosie every now and then, but I also event my brothers horse/mums team chaser Ross (CLOONS MASTER PLAN). I do not ride him much, and have often gone to events having not ridden him for months and literally only getting on him on the day. However even with this as a setback we have still had some very good results. At Stockland Lovell unaffiliated novice we got the best dressage out of 40 starters, and ended up coming 2nd. A remarkable achievement seeing as I hadn’t ridden him for months and he hadn’t done any dressage for over a year!
We also had placings at many other pony club events in 2009 gaining some fabulous marks in the dressage. At Gadbury, Eldersfield we got a dressage of 23!!

We have also had success at pure show jumping. At Hartpury 1m10 grand prix, we were the only combination to jump three clear rounds and thus qualified for the championships. However I do not do much BE with him as he is not reliable enough XC. He gets scared on his own and sometimes throws in the towel. The one BE event I did last year, we got a very good dressage, clear show jumping, but then I had to retire him XC because he decided he would rather not, and also caused me to have a nasty fall. It is such a shame as he would be an unbelievably talented eventer if this was not the case!

So after we sold William, it came the time to look for my first horse. We wanted to find a 16 1hh eventer currently competing at PN/Novice that I could bring on up the levels.

We ended up with BOURNE BELVEDERE, a novice eventer with 5 points, brought on By Jon Souch. We bought him as a 16 1hh but soon realised that in fact he is much bigger. He measures 16 2-16 3hh and according to my show jumping trainer, rides 17 2hh. This was not what we had planned for my first horse, especially considering that I am very small! However, we soon created a strong bond and have already had many successes together.

2008 was my first year with Belvedere, where we progressed from BE90 to Novice in one season, placing 11th at Aldon 2Day JN. We also qualified for the Open Pony Club Eventing championships, where we went clear cross country inside the time. Our pony club Eventing last year, was also made successful when we won, consecutively, two pony club events. Our XC record last year was unblemished, and I hope to maintain this.

2009 was a mixed year for myself and Belvedere. It started off quite well with a 4th at Kelsall Hill JRN and a few double clears, something we had failed to achieve in 2008. However our Dressage and Show-Jumping then fell apart, and although our SJ was more careful, we started to have stops. My plan of an OIU21 went out the window! However, I got a new SJ Trainer (Brian Smith) and it started to come back together and we won Goring Heath JON, were selected to Represent Wales & Borders at the CCIJ* JRN Championships and contested in two international competitions (Knaptoft CIC* and Weston Park CCIJ*). A feat many people would love to do at just 16 years of age. Also, to win a British Eventing event is a huge achievement and at the beginning of this season I never thought that it would be possible. I am very proud of that, especially considering that it was the largest section of the competition and had forty starters, many of whom had been selected for the JRN championships. Our selection to represent Wales and borders has also been one of my Eventing highlights so far. The JRN program is very competative and so to get selected is a major achievement, especially seeing as I still have another two years left in this age group.

Onwards and upwards to the 2010 season where I hope to compete abroad at CCI* level and end the season with a CIC**!

Watch this space...