Mari Durward-Akhurst

BEF Competition

I have just got back from a fantastic weekend away and will soon be going on holiday. When I get back I will do a blog about my new horse, watch this space...

We arrived at Millfield School in Somerset on Thursday and I rode Woody. Then on Friday I was competing him in the Inter Regional BEF competition and it was also the trot ups for the International competition. My test was ok; not our best one, but I had some positive feedback from the judges. Woody passed the trot up so we put him to bed, and went to get ready for the meal that the BEF were holding. We all had a very good meal and it was nice to be able to sit with the other team members.

We all went to bed early as it was quite an early start the next day. I got up and my mum and dad had already fed Woody and he was relaxing in his box. I went to watch the other competitors compete. Time went by very quickly and it was time for me to get on board. We got Woody ready and went into the warm up. The World Class coach David Hammer was helping me to warm up; Woody went really well; he was really forward and straight. I went into the arena very positive and we pulled of a good test. I knew it was good because of all the cheering at the end; I was really pleased as it was the best Woody had ever gone. My mark came up and it was 68% I was really pleased with this as there were still some areas we could improve on. I finished in overall 3rd place out of the grade 3’s for both days. It was very close between 3rd and 2nd place. Shortly after my mark had come up the judge who is one of the selectors for all the major international competitions came up to me and said that it was the best she had ever seen Woody go with me. I was over the moon with this comment and she also said that due to Woody’s mouth opening she had to take some marks off.

All the teams got together for the Inter Regional prize giving and waited to be called to hear where they had come. Each team had 4 people on it and there were team placings and then individuals. I missed out on being placed individually by 2% but it was a big class. Our team made up of me, Kathryn, Vicky and Matthew finished 4th. We were all very pleased with this result and I had the second highest score on the team. We won numnahs and were all very happy.

 

Mari