First things first!

I have always admired bloggers so have decided to join in although my day to day life may not be as exciting as some! We have exciting news in the dressage world! For those of you who have never heard of dressage, it is an equestrian sport and yes an Olympic one too! Riders train their horses to perform set movements in a 20m x 60m arena and the one with the highest score wins! First though they have to find the right horse which must have extraordianry movement, think giselle x swan, and also a brain that allows a mere human to steer and manouver 620K of horsepower with only a saddle and a bridle to contain it! The ultimate test is the Grand Prix, unlike the car one speed is not overly involved. SO the exciting news is that our team for the Europeans taking place in Rotterdam this August has been announced. We, that is Great Britain, are in contention for a Gold medal. Carl Hester, Charlotte Du Jardin, Laura Bechtolscheimer and Emile Faurie will be representing us so please support by watching either on clipmyhorseTV via internet or Eurosport. We get so little coverage by the media and yet our teams have been bringing home medals! Its much more interesting than darts!
Of course, dressage has to be scored by someone so the powers that be promote judges to spot the mistakes and award a mark for each movement out of 10. Hmmm I hear you say, isn't this subjective? Well yes it is and a very political topic with disagreements between judges over who whould and should not win. Lets hope they are all singing from the same hymn sheet later this month!

Of course riders do not just become team members over night. The journey is a long one, and I have many stories to tell along the way, not least my own which is a tale of frustration and limitation!
Wel thats the start of my blog. I hope you are a little interested.. I have to go now to bath 16.3hh of skewbald mare before we set off to compete tomorrow. No not Grand Prix, merely an advanced medium and Im hoping she lets the brakes off tomorrow and earns some good marks!