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So….

I have ridden since I was young.  My mum put me on my first pony who was the same age as me (she would have been 30 in May) a Welsh section A called Twinkle, when I was a toddler.  Twinks was very sweet but I didn’t really catch the riding bug until I was 9 years old. 
Unfortunately, that meant I only had about a year on Twinkle before I
outgrew her.  She did go on to have a long and happy life out on loan from one pony club family to the next, and she was loved by a lot of little people before she came back to us to retire, and passed away aged 26.  So, money was always very tight back in those days and my parents couldn’t afford to buy me a bigger pony.  We were lucky enough to spot an advert in the Scot-ads for a 13.2hh pony who was to go out on loan.  Flicka came home, she was a gorgeous colour (a very solid dun) but wouldn’t have won any beauty competitions!  Flicka was an ex-BSJA pony and so obviously she could jump very well, but only at one speed!!  We got on ok, but Flicka wasn’t very well-liked by some of the teachers at pony club and I remember being quite upset at camp one year as I wasn’t allowed to jump with the rest of my group.  We moved pony clubs so that I could do my riding and road safety on Flicka (who was absolutely bombproof on the roads but went crazy in the practice session you had to do before your test in those days because there were jump poles laid out as a road!!)  Flicka was passed to my mum when I moved on to a bigger pony and the first thing my mum did was to change her bit (she had made me ride her all those years in a snaffle!) Flicka died around 12 years ago in her late 20’s from sub-acute grass sickness, and I ran the Loch Ness Marathon in her memory for EGSF when I was 18. 
From Flicka I got another horse on loan – Kelly.  She was a pure white grey 15.1hh mare and together we did all PC activities.  Kelly loved jumping but had this awful habit of committing to a jump, stopping dead and at the very last second deciding she was going to jump about 5 feet higher than the fence.  I spent quite a lot of Wednesday evenings in A&E after cross country rallies!!  I had some fantastic years with Kelly and great memories made with my mum on Flicka…we had some adventures!!  At standard grade time I decided I wanted to
give up riding and so Kelly returned to her owners.  We owned Flicka by that time so she stayed with us until she died. 

After just a couple of years I decided I wanted a horse of my own again.  I couldn’t afford to buy my own pony as I was at Uni at the time, and so I approached a local charity and took on “Flash”, a 13.2hh PBW gelding so that I could go hacking again with my mum rather than following on a bike.  Flash is currently on loan to a lovely lady near Dingwall, who still hacks him out.

Over the last few years, I have spent a lot of my time breaking and bringing on the
family Welsh ponies.

I had always dreamed of owning a dapple grey hunter who would give me my jumping wings.  I have always wanted to jump…by jump I don’t mean flying round 1m 20 show jumping courses or tackling the Cottesmore Leap at Burghley (I am realistic!!) What I do mean is to be able to confidently ride round a course of fences which are actually off the ground without my mouth going dry and my whole body freezing.  I don’t know what my problem is, I KNOW I am perfectly capable, I KNOW I can sit to a horse when it does something unexpected or puts in a huge jump (most of the time!) but that is how I am and I have come to accept that.

Around two years ago I decided that I had worked hard enough to justify having a look for my “dream” horse and the search (which actually didn’t take very long after all!) began.  At 5ft 2 I knew I wouldn’t feel confident on a massive horse, so again had to be realistic.  When my mum and I spotted a 14.1hh dapple grey Connemara on Horsequest, I initially scrolled past the advert, but my mum fell in love with the pony straightaway, so I made arrangements to travel down
to Cheshire in England to meet Stormy.

I remember seeing that head pop out over the stable door and my heart just
melting, and I knew I had fallen head over heels and my dream “horse” was
staring me in the face.

Stormy made the long journey to us early in 2016 and she has been everything I could have hoped for.  We worked very hard on our schooling and have done well in the show ring as novices, and Stormy is now in open classes following her amazing result at the NPS (Scotland) finals at Blair last year, where she came 2^nd in the Connemara novice class – a dream come true to get such a high placing at Blair!!  We also have competed in a couple of novice working hunter classes and for the most part have been getting very respectable placings – Storms LOVES jumping.

Unfortunately though, my issue is still there.  I turn to a fence and as we approach it I freeze up, and all sense goes out of the window.  It is the most stupidest thing, I have a pony who is completely unspooky and will not look at anything…I should be having the time of my life jumping from one event to the next.

BUT…I have decided that I am going to make 2018 (and my first year in the 30s!) the year I deal with my issue, and to do this I have signed me and Stormy up as….
WOBBLEBERRIES!!!

Yes,
we are going to complete the Wobbleberry challenge.  AND WE ARE GOING TO DO IT!!!

For those of you who don’t know, this challenge was set up to raise money for a
fantastic charity, Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony.  This charity was founded by Hannah Francis in March 2016.  Hannah was a very talented event rider, who was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in May 2015 at just 17 years old.  Hannah continued to ride up until very sadly she died at 18 years old in August 2016.  Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony charity was founded to fund research into osteosarcoma and also to provide equestrian experiences to seriously ill people, in the hope that these experiences will inspire those people and bring some happiness and hope during very difficult times for them.

The Wobbleberry Challenge was set up to raise funds for the charity and so far as
raised over £252,000.

Basically,what Stormy and I will have to do, is to aim to complete a BE80(T) event.  A BE80(T) is a competition and the first step into the sport of affiliated eventing. We will need to ride a dressage test, before going on to complete a show jumping course, before completing a cross country course, with the fences set at around 80cm.  This may sound very simple to my non-horsey friends but I can assure you it isn’t going to be!!  I am certainly not aiming to be on the next
GB Eventing team (Stormy couldn’t cope with the jet setting!) but I am aiming
to complete the challenge.  There is no time limit set on the challenge, and I intend to post my ups and downs with my training as I go along, as I know there are a LOT of riders out there who are just like me and it may be that some of my friends could relate to me.

I am under no illusions that I am going to find this a piece of cake (Stormy
might…but I won’t!!) but there is another reason I want to do this now….

As some of you may know, Stormy had a terrible start to 2018.  Between Christmas and New Year the vets were called as a lump had appeared on her face. 
It was thought that the lump was the result of a tooth root abcess, which x-rays taken a couple of days later confirmed.  Stormy was referred to the Dick Vet Equine Hospital in Edinburgh, as the procedure for tooth extraction in horses is a
very big job.  Unfortunately, due to the time of year, she couldn’t go immediately as the hospital was closed for the festive period.  Stormy stopped eating properly and showed symptoms of colic. 
The vets were called again on 2^nd January and she was given a shot of penicillin; unfortunately we found out then that Stormy is allergic to penicillin and she suffered a reaction which was the most scary experience.  She basically fell straight to the ground and fitted.  I know I was lucky that she recovered from this shock, as I am aware that not all horses are lucky enough to have a second chance. 
The next day Stormy was given treatment for colic and in the afternoon we found out that we could take her down that evening to the hospital.  Storms seemed ok when we left her there and we had thought that she would be having her operation the next day and we would be able to collect her a couple of days later. 
Unfortunately Stormy’s colic symptoms reappeared the first night she was
there and it was discovered that she had a caecal impaction, at the very front of
her stomach.  Stormy was provided with “intensive care” veterinary management for a good few days later, and I was constantly expecting the call where I would be told she needed surgery or the impaction had ruptured.  Thankfully that call never came and Stormy gradually began to get better, and when re-examined
after a weekend off examination, it was found that the impaction had cleared.  Stormy went in for her tooth op and all went well – the tooth was extracted and she is now back at home and managing very well without it 😊. 
I was so scared during that period that I would lose her though, and now
I want to make sure that I enjoy every single moment I have with her. 

You will probably know that I am quite a regular showing competitor and have no
experience whatsoever at eventing (I couldn’t even complete a one day event at
pony club!!), so this makes the challenge even more challenging!!

I hope I have not bored you too much with my story and that I have managed to
explain why this challenge is the one I have to do.  I also hope that you will support me and Stormy on our journey by supporting this fantastic worthwhile cause.

Wish us luck!!!

K & S

xUx