The hot sun beats down on me as I walk to the warm up ring on my chestnut horse, Paul. I warm up to the sound of my horses hooves beating the soft sand as he trots and canters around the ring. Paul is eager to get to jumping and I eventually let in, because that is both of our favorite disciplines.

Once we get to the show ring I look at the difficult handy course that is in front of me. As soon as my trainer tells me how to execute the course correctly I walk in. I ask Paul to pick up the canter right away, because the first jump is close. We come straight to the middle of the jump and at the perfect second he flys over the three foot obstacle. We then roll back to the next oxer and I put my leg on while he handles the distance. “Nice job!” I say as we round the turn. The inside line works out perfectly and the single on the diagonal comes out just right.

Now only two jumps stand in the way of me coming into first place. It is an in and out. You are supposed to jump, take two strides and then clear another jump. We come to the first jump and meet it a little bit too close coming from a sharp turn… The rail falls down. I couldn’t let that bring our confidence down, so I made sure he was proud about the last jump.

I was happy about that round, even though we didn’t place well because of the rail. I know we tried our hardest and gave it our all.