I decided, with one week’s notice, to enter the 2023 American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) UK Championship Show. I had been considering entering due to it being in Cambridgeshire, and I have something called Futurity membership, which is for a horse from weanling to three years old, so this was my last year to be able to enter this category. But, equally, I had been so focused on backing him this year that I had gotten him out to a lot fewer shows and not really kept up with my in hand work – the Western discipline has a much tougher in hand element to showing than English.
I had a “why not?” moment and spontaneously entered the L1 Amateur Showmanship and the 3-Year-Old Futurity Gelding classes.
Showmanship is like in hand dressage: you have to learn a pattern consisting of halt, walk, trot, circles, rein back and turn on the haunches without touching the horse at any point, which, considering I had not practised all year, was a big ask, and the boy really stepped up, doing just 10-15 minutes an evening over the week.
Django was super well behaved at the busy environment of the national championships. He tried his heart out in the Showmanship, coming fourth, only one and a half points behind third, and three points behind second, so very competitive all things considered. It almost left me a little frustrated I hadn’t entered earlier and put in some more practice.
In the halter class he stood like a pro, looked like a pro, and for the first time ever at a Western show, I felt like we knew what we were doing and fired in. Unbelievably, we walked away from the show The AQHA UK Futurity Champion and I won my first ever plaque!
Equine insurance specialist now able to offer live prices and immediate cover. Equesure Insurance has launched a new insurance product for horse trailers valued up to £15,000.
The annual trip to Your Horse Live was completed and even my partner enjoyed a bit of it! Okay, he mainly enjoyed the cake stalls (and they were amazing – we took three bags of cake home with us), but also liked the rescue village and heavy horse yard. We got to go into the stable with two donkeys for pats and cuddles and we both loved it.
Five years ago, I had the absolute dream of having my own acreage, but this has honestly been the biggest learning curve, relearning so much about how to better look after our horses and what the land requires. Hopefully, I can give some insight into things I have learnt, mostly by trial and error and lots of mistakes.
After five or six years away from the British showjumping circuit, I’ve rejoined, and this time with my little Connemara standing just about 15HH – and he’s been amazing!