Horse of the Year Show 2008
Emily's Experience
Wow! What a week! It all started off with the team arriving together on Monday. We had to get there a day early to set up our tack room because there is a prize for the cleanest tack room throughout the week.
However, this took us longer than we thought because the dads that helped had to convert a wonky stable into a pretty place to store the horses' food, tack and our boots and hats. This all had to look extremely neat! It nearly took us six hours to sort it out and by that time we were exhausted!
Then our ponies had to be vetted which means they were checked for illness or to see if they were lame by a vet. Luckily, my pony Milo was safe and sound and so were the rest of the team. Then we (the riders) were weighed in case we were too heavy for our ponies (I was worried about this, so I kept off the cream cakes for a couple of weeks beforehand because Milo is only little!)
After that, our trainer Maureen gave us a briefing about what time we were meant to get up during the week and when we had to be at our stables for the inspectors to come round checking for dirt on our boots, unclean tack, dirty stables and the state of the tackroom!
By the end of that, it was time for our tea, so we trundled up to the toasty van, which we had also done the year previously! Good old Mr and Mrs Toasty provided us with Kit Kat and Mars Bar toasties! (As I'd been weighed, I didn't worry about my weight now!) Then having received strict rules from Maureen, we had to go to bed at ten so we all walked back, checking on the ponies on the way back.
The next morning we got up really late compared to the rest of the week. We got up at seven o'clock ready to practise in the main arena at eight. It was our only practice in the main arena, the rest of the week we practised in a small one, called the Caldene arena. It was really exciting riding in the arena for the first time, even though we weren't competing.
We practised some races and the parade around the arena and after that we went back to the stables, put the ponies away, cleaned our tack and boots, fed the ponies and went to bed for an hour or so. This happened every morning, except a lot earlier - we would get up at 4.45 am, ready to ride at 5.30am. I was completely exhausted by the end of the week. Anyway, once we had slept we would have a shower, check the ponies again, check on the tack room, go shopping and mess around with the other teams.
However, the lunchtime briefings with Maureen were a very important part of our day because we discussed every possible thing that could happen during the time we were competing and we really had to concentrate and be focussed about the job in hand.
On Tuesday night, all the teams had to perform a sketch in front of the other teams just so we could get to know each other. Every team did a song and dance and that worked out brilliantly but we did Britain's Got Talent and I was Amanda Holdman. It was very funny and everyone loved it. All the stewards who help throughout the week said it was original and we thought that they secretly liked ours the best!
After Tuesday, the hard work began! Wednesday started off as usual, going down to practise and coming back, cleaning everything and going back to bed. Then, we had our briefing, had lunch and got ready for our first competition. The butterflies were starting to squirm around in my tummy.
The first competition was for the Diamond Jubilee Cup and there were three rounds. Although there was hardly anybody watching, it was really nerve-wracking and I made my first mistake but the team told me not to worry and reassured me. In this round we finished a creditable 2nd, we didn't ride our best but it definitely wasn't our worst.
We had another round that night and one the next morning and Banwell won overall with us coming second. We were pleased with this result but we knew we could do better.
Thursday night was the first round of the Prince Philip Cup which is the main trophy that everyone wants to win and there were many more people watching (about 8,000) and it was on Sky TV, but we had not been drawn to ride then. We went to the arena to watch everyone - how relaxing and how easy it looks when you're not doing it! (Sky Sports will broadcast a highlights programme of this year's show on New Year's Day.)
We had two sessions on Friday; one in the afternoon and one in the evening which again was on television.
Whenever a family/team member has had their birthday during the week, we have ridden well on that day and on Friday it was Jess Russell's birthday - and surprise, surprise, we won both sessions! It felt really good riding in the spotlight and it gave all of us a huge boost of confidence. Also, when we won in the afternoon, we were getting our rosettes and Peter Andre was sitting in the hospitality seating in front of us. We all waved at him and he waved back! It was very funny!
But perhaps we were feeling a bit too confident because Saturday night was a nightmare! We thought we would probably win the session because our main rivals, Banwell, were not competing that evening. We finished third and felt quite depressed about it. This meant that Maureen would not let us watch the Puissance and we were sent straight to bed!
Our penultimate session was on Sunday afternoon and we rode better than the night before coming a creditable second, however we still didn't ride our best. Banwell were in the lead going into the final, by four points so Sky interviewed them in the afternoon after the session but we got interviewed on Saturday with Susan Dando and unfortunately, my interview was picked by Sky, so it was shown later that night on Sky. That was really embarrassing!
Anyway, we went into the final lying in second place, which I think is a good position to be in. You don't want to go in leading because the pressure is on you and that proved to be the case on this occasion. It was nail biting from the beginning to the end and double points for each race were at stake. The crowd was electric; you could especially hear the Oakley supporters, screaming their socks off!
I felt excited and nervous at the same time but all my thoughts vanished as the first race began. And what a way to start, the first race was the hurdles and we all went really well and won which was a great start to the evening. But it was so close by the end because we lost and won races as did Banwell, so going into the last race any one of three teams could have won the competition.
None of us were talking and it felt as if the whole crowd had gone quiet and everything seemed to slow down, it was the sack race where four of us had to jump in a sack together. As we got into the sack there was nothing between all the teams and as we were jumping I was screaming without realising, ‘JUMP!' to my team mates, then we realised something had happened because the commentator was going ‘Oooh and the Banwell have fallen over as well as the Sir Watkins William Wynn's and Oakley are going for the line, could it be a fifth win for them?'
‘Yes it is' I thought as we crossed the line with Maureen jumping in the air in happiness. This all happened so quickly and I burst into tears quite unexpectedly as did the others but not as much as me! It was truly amazing and unrealistic as we celebrated into the night.
And it still hasn't sunk in but it will be a memory I will never forget!
Emily Myrtle
