Brain training and jump training finally comes together at Firle!

This summer has not been without its challenges, the experience with Mulligan made me doubt myself and that unfortunately started to manifest in my head, show jumping Yara had become an issue. Pony Club Areas and Borde Hill unaffiliated saw 12 penalties on each SJ round. This was, I convinced myself all my fault. On the other hand my dressage was just going from strength to strength. Time to tell Fiona Bigwood that I was going to become a dressage rider full time!

Mum was at her wits end, her normal motivational speeches were falling on deaf ears and I was not in a happy place. Time to bring in the big guns!

First up Tina Cook a long heart to heart with Tina made me realise that this happens at every level, I am not alone and that I can do this. She promised to help me every step of the way and that gave me the confidence to start believing in myself again.

Then came Jon Pitts, Jon is a Performance Coach at the highest level across a lot of disciplines in sport, I didn't do a lot of riding that evening but after 45 minute talking with him, Yara and I went and did a foot perfect SJ round then another half hour talk and we did another foot perfect SJ round. He showed me that I can do it, but when it goes wrong is when I over analyse and think too much about the round.

Then came Michael Rogers my amazingly supportive sponsor, Mum showed me an email he wrote to her which made me realise how lucky I am to have a sponsor that even when everything is going wrong is there for me and supports me.

Then David, Yara's owner who told me I had transformed his horse and that the blip was only a blip and that he believed in me and Jill Chator Estella's owner who gave me a kick up the backside and told me she wanted to see the old Harriet back.

Finally Emma Harrision SJ coach. We were introduced to Emma by Sarah Millard (Hector's owner)  who thought she and I would work well together. Building on the confidence and support that I had got from my whole team, she knew the buttons to press, she has a fantastic eye, after 2 sessions my confidence soared and Yara was not touching a thing. She also made me see that although obviously I do make mistakes, most of them this time were actually Yara and her 6 year old issues!

Looking back this blog might make me seem high maintenance, but this has never happened to me before. I have always had ultimate belief in what I wanted to do and, well my Mum and Dad particularly taught me that you can achieve anything you set your mind too. But you cannot do this on your own and it does take a whole team and everyone has such an important part. No one in my team puts any pressure on me, I put plenty enough on myself!

The result at Firle was a reflection of this incredible team, Yara and I got a double clear and ended up coming 2nd in what was a very challenging SJ and XC where clear rounds in both proved to be very elusive. Funny but when I went into that show jumping, I knew it would be clear and in addition we have dealt with the cross country water issues. I am realistic, we could go backwards again, Yara is only 6 after all but I am confident that she will get there.

Thank you team!!!

This is me going over the last show jumping fence at Firle, I think you can see how happy I am!