Today I went to Verden to the World Young Horse Championships, and like Thursday, it was amazing. I was able to go into the stables with Leonie and see "behind the scenes". It was when I was walking her horse that I realised that the competition I had read about in the Horse Magazine for years in Australia, I was now actually at, and even better, in the stables helping! Go little Australian, go!
In fact, I even got interviewed today! I was just walking around when I saw Carsten, my saddle fitter, and after I had finished talking to him a lady came up to me and said that she guessed English was my first language. I said yes and wasn't going to mention it was actually my only language! She was doing a newpaper report on foreign people at the competition. So I just told her all about what I was doing there and in Germany, and then she took some photos of me pretending to look at saddlecloths. I'm practically famous now! Hahaha :P
One of the dressage areans
This morning I watched the 7-9 year old St Georges Special class, the same class that I will be doing at a competition tomorrow except this one is for 7-9 year old horses only. It is one of the qualifiers for the class at the Frankfurt World Cup in December. There were some really lovely horses and good riding in that class!Then I helped get Leonie's horse ready for the 6 year-old class, and watched that for the rest of the morning. It was the small final class, the class for the people that didn't get in the top 12 of yesterday's preliminary 6 year-old class. That top 12 went through to compete tomorrow in the final, and today the top 3 also go through to the final. It is fair to say that Michael Eilberg's "Farouche" is going to be the clear winner of that class, but there are some stunning horses in there that will be close behind that amazing mare!
Leonie competing in the
6 year-old class
Today I decided to not only watch the jumping, but go to the warm up and see what went on there. I've never watched a jumping warm-up properly before, and I figured if I wanted to dabble in a bit of showjumping when I get back to England then I'd better find out what people actually do! I was so shocked at how different it was to a dressage warm-up - of course there is the obvious fact that they are jumping, not half-passing, but they were all incredibly laid-back! One guy jumped off his horse and threw his groom on, no helmet and wearing what could only just pass as riding boots, and she went off on his horse to cool it down. Then a guy cantered past me while he was talking on the phone! Can you imagine anyone in a dressage warmup cantering around on a mobile? And after their turn to jump, they immediately whip their helmet off and head back outside, which is actually the scariest and riskiest bit, getting from the warm-up to the show arena and back. Or maybe I'm being a precious dressage princess? I don't know, but whatever those showjumpers are feeding off, I want some of it too because I love their approach! They literally just get on and do it, no mucking around. They are all really good looking people too, not a bad crowd to be associated with if you ask me!
Showjumping
After my little jumping experience I went to the completely opposite class, the Grand Prix. Most of the riders I didn't know, only Nadine Capellmann and Isabel Werth I had heard of. But still, they were all pretty good! I only saw the first five or six, because then it was time to leave. On the way home Leonie said I could compete tomorrow, so although I didn't ride Seb today I'm sure he will be fine for tomorrow. I had all my stuff organised anyway, so all I had to do was hose the sand off Seb after being in the paddock today, and plait him. We leave at 9.30 tomorrow morning, so I have plenty of time to get my stuff together and get organised in the morning. I am so excited!!!
