Perdido and I had a lovely time at the GBPRE Show at Hartpury this July. We gained a lot of confidence from competing here last year, so my goal was to improve on last time.  This is a short summary or our experience.

My top tips would be:

• Practice feeling relaxed all the time – handling, riding, to give you horse confidence in you.
• Train for everything- dressage tests, loading, in-hand work, and get running. Sadly my running skills were not up to keeping up with Perdido, so I did let him down.
• Get used to your wearing your Spanish gear- tack and clothes. Including appropriate underwear. (Thank goodness for M&S ‘hold it all in pants!)
• practice getting your chaps done up (I knocked my time down to about 10 minutes from half an hour!)
• Practice plaiting. By the last day of the show, my skills were quit passable.
• Pack your grooming kit with everything you need to hand (including mints.
• Drink water. All the prep-mucking out, running around with your trolley-is very thirsty work, so stay hydrated. Mind you, make sure you go to the loo before donning said control pants- I sympathise with the corset wearers of olden days who fainted a lot!)
• Get a festival trolley to cart everything around (last year I had a squeaky wheelbarrow which drove everyone mad!)

Upgrading the horse lorry two weeks before the show added a bit of logistical stress, with putting everything in the right place for grabbing at the right moment.With wine stashed in the wardrobe, and food rammed into the tiny fridge, all angles were covered. The cutlery draw was just the right size for phones, keys and polos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The planning paid off, ensuring calm transitions between events, with time for a sit down and a beer (kept under the sink) with my ever-patient husband in between, filming our progress.

 

Perdido is now an old hand at these away-shows, and was totally chilled throughout. Although I looked so serious in all the photos, I did actually enjoy it all! It was so lovely meeting up with old friends and enjoying showing our lovely horses.

After a long drive home, it was lovely getting back to recover: to the peace and quiet, and enjoying a hack around the fields. It took a couple of days to unpack the lorry again!