PART 13 - MY JOURNEY WITH MJ

Even now, writing this nearly four years later, I still smile thinking about Blair.

After the mad scramble to get our entry accepted, organise stabling, learn a dressage test I'd barely looked at and get everything packed, we loaded up and headed north.

Because Mum and I had already volunteered to jump judge on the Thursday, we took MJ up a day earlier than we otherwise would have done and settled her into the off-site stabling we'd managed to find. Thankfully she had turnout there, which made me feel much happier than the thought of her standing in a stable all day while we were off jump judging.

As always, she took everything in her stride.

Mum and I spent the Thursday doing what we'd originally planned to do all along – standing out on cross country judging. The only difference was that this time, every so often, one of us would stop and say something along the lines of, "I can't quite believe we're actually competing here tomorrow."

For years we'd come to Blair as spectators.

For years we'd watched other people warming up, walking courses and preparing for championships.

And now, somehow, we were one of them.

After jump judging finished, we headed back to collect MJ and then drove into Blair.

By this point it was getting dark and, because we'd arrived later than most people, the parking situation was interesting!

All the non-FEI parking was full, so we ended up parking in the FEI parking while stabling was at the opposite end of the site. Anyone who knows Blair will appreciate just how much fun it was carrying what felt like half our possessions from one side of the venue to the other in the dark.

At the time though, I honestly didn't care.

I was just so excited to be there.

The following day started with dressage.

Now, I need to explain that I hate learning dressage tests. I always have. I like plenty of time to learn them properly and I normally spend weeks riding them in my head while cooking dinner, walking the dogs and trying to get to sleep.

This time I'd had about five days.

Not ideal.

To make matters more interesting, it was a championship test in a 20x60 arena, which I rarely rode in.

Thankfully my dressage coach, Caroline, happened to be at Blair and was able to help warm me up.

To this day, I still don't really know how we managed it, but MJ produced a lovely test and we scored 33.9.

Given the circumstances, I was absolutely delighted.

I think at that point we were sitting somewhere around the middle of the leaderboard, which was far better than I'd expected.

Then came the showjumping.

I wasn't particularly worried about the fences themselves. What concerned me more was the atmosphere.

We'd never jumped anywhere quite like that before, with trade stands, spectators and activity everywhere you looked.

I genuinely had no idea how MJ would react.

As it turned out, she couldn't have cared less.

She marched into the arena as though she'd been doing it all her life.

We had two fences down, both entirely rider-related in my opinion, but I came out absolutely thrilled with her.

She had handled the whole atmosphere brilliantly.

Then came cross country.

The phase we'd both been waiting for.

Before I walked the course for the first time, my showjumping and cross-country coach, Olivia, walked it with me.

Thank goodness she did.

Because there were definitely combinations on that track where, left to my own devices, I might have talked myself out of it.

Olivia just kept marching on, telling me that MJ would be absolutely fine and that I needed to stop overthinking things.

She also casually informed me that MJ was my horse of a lifetime and that I should probably be thinking about doing a one-star the following year.

I remember thinking she was completely mad.

A BE100 still felt like a huge achievement to me.

When it was finally our turn to leave the start box, I felt excited more than nervous.

I think because by that point I'd already achieved everything I'd wanted to achieve simply by being there.

Anything else was a bonus.

And, as she always did, MJ absolutely rose to the occasion.

She flew round.

Not recklessly.

Not dramatically.

Just confidently and honestly, answering every question I asked her.

There were some really technical combinations on that course but she seemed to read them all so naturally.

Every time I told her she was a good girl, I could feel her puff herself up underneath me.

It's difficult to explain unless you've ridden a horse like that, but it genuinely felt as though she tried harder when she knew she'd pleased you. This photo below was the Part A of very built to height, angled brushes, jumping downhill......look at her little face totally focussed on Part B ❤️

We crossed the finish line clear, picking up a few time faults because I rode some sections a little cautiously, but I couldn't have cared less.

I was absolutely over the moon.

Then came the biggest surprise of all.

We finished 11th.

At Blair.

Out of a huge championship class.

I honestly couldn't believe it.

And to make it even more special, we got to go into the main arena for the prizegiving, immediately after the four-star presentations.

I can still remember walking into that arena thinking, "How on earth has this happened?"

Years earlier, I'd brought home a recently retired racehorse as a temporary arrangement.

A horse I wasn't even excited about collecting.

A horse I never intended to keep.

A horse who was supposedly never going to be more than a BE100 horse.

And there we were.

Eleventh at Blair.

If somebody had written that ending when I first got her, I wouldn't have believed it.

It remains one of the proudest moments of my life and one of the happiest memories I'll ever have with MJ.

The sad thing is, though, neither of us had any idea that our eventing journey together was much closer to the end than the beginning.