PART 4 - MY JOURNEY WITH MJ
When Things Start Going Right
Our first event came just 4 weeks after that first competition. Looking back, it was probably too soon. But at the time… it felt like the next step.
The Reality
I was more excited than nervous. Until I got on. Then she felt like a coiled spring beneath me, waiting to explode...then i was nervous!!! With no martingale, warming up for dressage in an open field with horses cantering past us...well we didn't even get out of walk in the warm up!! The dressage reflected that. Tense....very very tense! Cantering up our last centre line, screeching to a sideways halt!
But Then…
Something changed once we started jumping. Clear showjumping. And then cross country.
That’s where it really clicked. From that very first event, it was obvious…
MJ loved it. She was bold, willing, and completely in her element. We finished 7th in a class of around 25. For our first event … it felt huge.
The First Setbacks
But it didn’t last. Not long after that, she half lost a shoe. The toe clip embedded into her sole. What followed was:
4 weeks off work
10 weeks off jumping
Just as we were building momentum… everything stopped. And then it happened again.
Another injury. Another period off.
The Pattern Begins
It didn’t take long to see the pattern forming.
Progress. Setback. Recovery. Repeat.
And not because anything was being done wrong.
Just… bad luck.
What This Does To You
This is one of the hardest parts of any horse journey. Because you never quite relax.
Even when things are going well…there’s a part of you waiting for the next thing to go wrong. That constant underlying worry. The “what if.” And over time… that starts to affect:
Your confidence
Your decision making
Your ability to enjoy it
What I See Now
This is something I see so often with riders. They don’t just lose confidence because of one big moment…It’s the accumulation of:
Setbacks
Uncertainty
And never quite feeling safe to trust things are going well
What Came Next
And for us… the challenges were only just beginning. Because the next phase wasn’t just injuries…t was trying to deal with behaviour, hormones, and situations that didn’t always make sense.
Part 5: When you know something isn’t right… but can’t work out what
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