Watch and Learn...

This weekend was long and busy, spent at a competition in Springe. Saturday was the young horse day, and we had five horses going for Martin the head rider to ride. Sunday was Leonie's day with three of her advanced horses in five classes.
I rode Seb early before I left with Volker in the lorry, with three horses (including Chad!) on board. The other two were already at the show as their class started at 7am. I was so excited to see Chad in action, especially as I have never had any experience with young horse classes before. So now it was interesting to have my own horse in them and I can learn more about what they involve. I couldn't ride him in this competition because my riding license hadn't come through yet, but it was actually perfect for me to watch how Martin dealt with Chad in a busy warm up, and how he rode the test on him.
The 4 year old test was done with another horse, and the woman on the loudspeaker calls out the instructions. Chad was absolutely perfect, he didn't put a foot wrong! I was such a proud mom. He got placed 7th, so I have my first ever German rosette now!! Never mind I didn't even ride him in the class haha...
Martin did well on the rest of the horses, and it was a really pleasant day to be out at a competition because it was hot and sunny. I braved exposing my legs in hope the sun might give them a bit of colour, but I think I need a lot more than just one day! We got back to the barn at about 4.30pm, washed off the horses and put them to bed, unpacked the lorry and cleaned it out ready to be used again the next day by Leonie.
On Sunday I again rode Seb early before Leonie left, and Chad had a day off. Leonie had a full-on day, riding from 11.30am till 8.30pm. I did my bit as a groom but got to watch the advanced classes too which was really good for me to compare them with Seb. The quality was high, but Leonie won 3 of her classes out of five, and placed twice.
It's always so valuable for me to come to these competitions because I can get a preview of what it will be like when I compete there myself. It is all very different to England, like how they do the start times (you don't get an individual start time, you have to work it from the time the class starts and to what place you are down the list and figure out how long after the class starts you will be on), and even just getting used to the lanuage barrier so I'm not in such shock when I turn up to compete but can't understand anything that is going on. I think I've got it sussed now though.
We got back to the barn at about 9.30pm which was hideously late so we put the horses to bed quickly and went home. I was so exhausted, I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow! Having gone through such a rough patch recently, I am so thankful to be taken around to all of these shows and get my inspiration back. I realised how much I miss competing and I got really frustrated when everyone in England was doing premier leagues and internationals and I missed out. That won't be the case next year though, because our training will be spot on after this episode in Germany and I will have the confidence to go back out there and feel like I'm doing a good job when I do a test.