PART 12 - MY JOURNEY WITH MJ

After Glamis, life carried on pretty much as normal.

In fact, things got even better.

Our next event was Hopetoun and somehow MJ went one better than she'd done at Glamis and finished 2nd in the BE100. To this day that's still our best British Eventing result.

I was absolutely delighted.

What's funny is that only a few months earlier at that exact same event, I'd been ready to give up eventing altogether because of a disappointing dressage score. Now here we were, getting placed at BE100 and genuinely holding our own. After Hopetoun we competed at a local Derby competition in the 100 class and won that….MJ was totally on fire!!!!

The plan after that was straightforward.

MJ was due a bit of a break, my husband and I were heading away for a few days to celebrate our wedding anniversary, and then Mum and I would head off to Blair for our annual five-day holiday.

We'd been going to Blair for years. We always went for the full week, usually did a bit of cross-country judging, watched far too much horse sport, spent too much money at the trade stands and generally had a brilliant time.

We'd always joked that I'd only ever go as a competitor if I qualified.

The thing was, I never really expected that to happen.

So while I was away with my husband, I got a message from a friend asking if I'd realised I'd qualified.

I remember reading it and thinking she'd got it wrong.

I hadn't been keeping track of qualification criteria and, if I'm honest, I hadn't even looked into them properly. At BE90 you needed a top-three placing and because I'd only recently moved up to BE100, I'd just assumed it would be something similar.

Apparently not.

The more I checked, the more it seemed she might be right.

I can still remember wandering around Edinburgh Zoo the next day checking messages, looking at qualification criteria and trying to work out if this was actually happening.

It was.

MJ and I had qualified for Blair.

The next problem was that entries had already closed.

Not ideal.

I remember thinking we'd missed our chance before we'd even realised we had one.

Thankfully, after a few phone calls and a very helpful secretary, we managed to get an entry accepted.

At which point the reality started to sink in.

We were actually going.

Then the practicalities started.

Because Mum and I had already volunteered to jump judge on the Thursday, before my competition day, we couldn't just arrive the night before like most people would.

MJ needed to go up early.

She also needed somewhere to stay during the day while we were sitting out on cross country.

So suddenly, instead of enjoying the last few days of my holiday, I found myself trying to organise stabling, turnout and logistics from miles away.

Thankfully we managed to find off-site stabling that offered turnout, which was ideal because the last thing I wanted was MJ standing in a stable all day while we were off jump judging.

Then another reality hit me.

This wasn't just Blair.

It was the Blair Grassroots Championships.

Which meant a championship dressage test.

In a 20x60 arena.

Now, I know lots of people ride 20x60 tests every week, but I don't. My arena at home is 20x40 and I usually need weeks to learn a dressage test properly.

I am one of those people who rides the test in the shower, while making dinner, while walking the dogs and generally whenever my brain has a spare minute.

This time I had about five days.

Five days to learn a test I'd never ridden before.

Five days to fit in some practice.

Five days to organise a championship trip I'd never expected to be going on.

Five days to get a horse ready that had just been enjoying a well-earned holiday.

Looking back, it sounds as though I should have been stressed.

But strangely, I wasn't.

I think because by that point the season had already exceeded anything I'd ever imagined. We'd gone from years of injuries and rehabilitation to being placed at BE100 and somehow qualifying for Blair.

I genuinely didn't care where we finished.

For once, I wasn't thinking about results.

I wasn't thinking about placings.

I wasn't thinking about qualification criteria.

I just wanted to soak up every minute of it.

I wanted to enjoy the atmosphere, enjoy the experience and enjoy doing something that a few years earlier I would never have believed possible.

After everything MJ and I had been through together, simply being there felt like a huge achievement.

The whole thing felt slightly surreal.

One minute I was planning a relaxing few days away with my husband before heading to Blair as a spectator.

The next, I was trying to work out how on earth I was going to compete at the biggest event I'd ever qualified for.

And before I really had time to think about it too much, we were loading up and heading for Blair.

What happened next is still one of the most special experiences I've ever had with a horse.