Victorian Youth Festival
Victorian Youth Festival
Well this was an interesting week to say the least! I flew up to Callum Park the week before the competition to train with Jay. We had our first CDI-Y competition at the Youth Festival so we needed to run through the tests a few times and also alter my freestyle to suit the different requirements. Mum flew up on the Saturday night and we drove to Balmoral Equestrian Center run by Julia Battams on Sunday the 8th.
On Monday the 9th we had a Para Judges clinic with Mary Longden, which was a very informative clinic that allowed us to ride through the new tests. Tuesday the 10th we left the beautiful Balmoral Equestrian Centre and set off for Boneo Park! It was weird being one of the first to arrive there for the week ahead. Jay wasn’t too happy about being lonely but luckily another couple of competitors arrived in the evening so Jay had some company. Wednesday and Thursday were easy days, I worked Jay in the morning, washed him Thursday arfternoon and then had a rest for the remainder of both days.
Friday was a busy day with the PSG and FEI Young Rider Team Test. The PSG was first test at 11.36am, not our best test but not a bad effort either coming away with 62.456% placing 6th. The FEI Young Rider Team Test at 3.24pm, which is actually the same test as the PSG, was not as good as our PSG yet we scored better with 64.079% and 4th place. The rest of the day included prize giving’s, shopping and making new friends around the campsite.
Saturday was again busy with two tests. In the morning I re-plaited Jay up. We had the FEI Young Rider Individual Test first, at 9.24am, Jay pulling out his best effort in the horrible weather, disappointing scores though again with 61.009% and 4th place yet again. We had the Intermediate I at 2.12pm, which is my favourite test to ride. Jay felt more with me than he did the previous test. However Melbourne put the unexpected weather on us with sunny beautiful weather on minute and rainy and windy the next. It again wasn’t our best coming away with 61.491% and 4th place.
Sunday was my favourite day and best day of riding, the freestyle day. At 10am we had the FEI Young Rider Freestyle, a few hiccups and not being quite in time with the music lead to 4th place with 64.233%. I still had a lot of fun though and really tried to enjoy the last day of competition even though it was rather windy. Then we finished the competition on a high with the Intermediate Freestyle at 1.46pm. Still a couple of hiccups but I felt like the Jay I knew had returned to his usual rideable self and this reflected on the sores coming away with 66.433% and 2nd place behind Sydney Evan’s super pony Dara Park Tequila Sunrise! We finished with 4th place overall in the Small Tour and 4th place overall in the FEI Younger Rider.
A huge thank you as always to goes to my family, friends, sponsors and supporters and the whole dressage community for all of their support!