My mare, Printemps hurt herself early in the year and I haven’t been able to compete with her. This wasn’t our plan but thanks to Yoshi and Dirk, they organized a horse for me to compete on for the last part of the season so that I could qualify for the team selection of Asian Games next year.
I thought I found a kangaroo one the cross country course in Germany, but apparently it's a rabbit!
So I did five or six events between August and October. First thing I noticed was the difference in eventing over here in that they clearly distinguish between CNC and CIC events. Show jumping and cross country are much tougher in CICs, though having said that I reckon the National German dressage tests are harder than the CIC tests!
Taken at a CIC event in Holland, spot the beautiful wind mill behind the fence
They have a medium trot in the pre novice dressage test. As I cannot read the German tests, I got the German girl, who I work with, to read out the test for me.
She said “on the diagonal, medium trot”, I said “in rising?” and she said “Why?” so I said “Why not? I can’t sit like you lot!”
I'm always proud to have the Japanese flag up at events
Anyway, I’ve managed to get good enough results to put myself in the long list for the Asian Games, which is a fantastic thing and keeps me motivated to do more training though out the chilly, harsh winter …
