Trailblazers 2025 Elementary finalist! AND we make it to the final Champion of Champions 20!

7-9 August

What a fabulous weekend... Elementary championships at Addington for the Trailblazers Dressage Championships 2025.

I'm so lucky to have Fred. He's an incredible horse. He turns his hoof to everything. We've evented, and now we're show jumping and dancing our way up the levels.

This year alone he has qualified for the BRC Nationals in SJ (and attended) plus qualified in 80cm jumping, Novice and Ele dressage for both Trailblazers and Sunshine Tour. We've done 90cm jumping, I've just not been brave this year to push it.

The Trailblazers Championships though were something else. Made more special because we didn't make it last year as I caught covid 2 weeks before.

The attention to detail is outstanding. From the friendly welcoming party to the fabulously dressed arenas, all day commentary and upbeat music as you dance down the centre line, to the incredible mounted presentations with music! Oh and amazing goodie bags!!

To make it even more epic - it's a two day competition. On the first day each level is split into sections and the top 10 in each section (for ele) go forward to the ride a new test in the champions of champions on day 2...

Arrival day - Thursday 7th

The journey up was good. Fred stood well whilst I got his bed ready. There was bedding already in there so I sprayed everything down, the bedding the walls, the door - EVERYTHING - with my little pre-prepared hibby scrub spray. We were box C239 - 3rd block in, 39 from the top. Fred got as far as box C237 and HAD to wee...... He was not taking another step.... People around giggled politely, at which point, Fred decided to make more of the entertainment and started swinging his willy left and right, showering wee all over the centre track like he was watering plants. I was simultaneously laughing my head off and cringing with embarrassment :D

However, after that Fred settled like a pro, and was chilled whilst I plaited up. But - taking learnings from Arena UK, I wasn't going to leave him in the box and then tack up on the day by the trailer and ride a stressed pony, so, I tacked up in his stable - no bother - and we headed to the warm up for a leg stretch. Not only was he super chilled about life, but being somewhere new gave him a little bit of an edge and throughout the 20 mins warm up, he was quite simply amazing. So light and balanced that he did everything I asked with ease. That earned him a quick finish and a carrot!

He then thought he'd give the door a lick - just in case I re-dowsed it all down with Hibby Scrub..... Or at least I thought I did. I realised I'd used my mane and tail - argh, everything was slipppery as hell.... so THEN I re-dowsed with hibby scrub.

Competition day one - Friday 8th

We strutted our stuff, knocking out 7 and 7.5s through the first 8 moves -

• centre line, halt and move off - boom

• 2 x 15m circles from x - boom

• Medium trot to leg yield - boom

• Medium trot to leg yield other way - boom

• Head into halt and rein back - square halt BANG on A, ask to move back, Fred starts to poo.....

Yup and you know how he hates shit touching his legs..... urgh, so we waddle like a duck backwards, head in air, spots the flags the photographers... moves off and jogs in his (normally a 7.5 or 8!) double marked free walk, settles for the normal walk, tense though for his medium canter, then back in to the flags for 15m circle - tense, squiggly, now we have to loop by the killer flags, broke - twice...

BUT - after the simple change, I got his brain back in the game and we finished the test on 7s and an 8 for the final halt. I left the arena ....... and cried...... and cried.

After a consolation bacon buttie and cuppa, gutted and thinking we'd blown too many moves to make the final champion of champions cut for Saturday, we headed back up to the main arenas to watch and see the scores....

With the first 10 scores up, we were in 6th..... I couldn't believe it, 65.86 as a score..... But there were still another 10 test to get through and scores to go up ...... and the wait was agonising.

I knew only the top 10 could go through and we'd been 11th twice at Hartpury in 2023.... Surely that wouldn't happen again..... could it??

The next three scores went up....... 70.86, 64.66, 66.38... We were now in 8th... with 6 more scores to go up..... With a no show, two 65s less than Fred and one retirement, there were two more scores to go up, but it looked like we had done it. Even if they both knocked me down, I'd have made it through in 10th.....

But you know until the final results are up and confirmed you NEVER dare hope...

FINALLY, the last two scores went up both 61s. WE HAD DONE IT!! 8th and kept it, with all those f'ups, WE'D DONE IT.....

I cried (again) and rushed to tack up again for the presentation - I have NEVER done a mounted presentation. OH MY GOD. How awesome. Before we went in we were in the holding pen just walking around, and I was so proud to be in amongst all these posh big horses.

The music was very dramatic as we all filed in in order, and I was crying happy tears again. We lined up and then each combination was announced. The lady then explained, we'd all do a lap of honour in trot out and allow the finalist one lap of canter. The music started up and away we went.

Fred was about 3ft shorter than every other competitor - check out the video its sort of funny and cool, but he fooking held his own. Go my boy. You special special little guy.

When I got home and looked at the scores, and saw just how many marks we had thrown away (without being overly generous e.g. upping stuff to a 6 or 6.5) I realised we'd lost around 10 or 11 marks which would have placed us 2nd)

The mounted presentation entrance:

The mounted presentation - lap of honour:

Competition day two - Saturday 9th

After 3 nights of not sleeping and two in a car sleeping on the wheel arch, the 3.5 hour drive on Thursday, the adrenaline and angst of Friday, I was exhausted. So when I woke up at 5am (again) and mucked out at 6am for the second day in a row - I was like shit I can't do this. I'm exhausted. I'm not on until 1.57pm and whatever happens I then have to muck out and drive another 3.5 hours home. Thankfully Jayne talked me off the cliff and I mellowed.

We did it and I'm glad I did.

Since we had a long wait, I took Fred out to the big field to hand graze and leg stretch. Aware of strangles and other whatnots that can be picked up at big mixing venues, I walked to the far side of the field. Probably looked odd but better safe than sorry. I then went and purchased the T-shirt ready to take home ;)

I decided we didn't need a long warm up. Getting on at just 1.30pm. However, we were both bollox tired and although there were no spooks or mishaps because of pooing or flags, he was tired and couldn't give me the same quality as the previous days and I was too tired to hold him together. Plus shoulder-in and a simple change on the diagonal are new moves for us, we're hit and miss with them at the mo, and since we were both tired, sadly we were miss, miss, miss.

We finished in 19th, but I'm made up. We had to get through 2 rounds to get to Trailblazers and a third round to get to the champs of champs fourth round. The competition is national people were there from all over, from as far up north as Carlisle, Yorkshire, Preston, the Midlands - Manchester, Brum - and the South East and West - literally EVERYWHERE.

I've included our video of Day 2. I know it's full of errors (simple changes kept breaking) and not his finest work. But I'm not ashamed.

Instead I have learnt that we need to start doing competitions on 2 back to back days. Normally, he gets the day off after. Or perhaps school 3 days in a row.

I may also take different feed to help him recover after each day, using electrolytes, mix and maybe a recovery mash. Every day is a school day they say (as in learning not hammering the arena!!)

Whatever comes - I'm sooo fooking proud of my boy. And now we can sleep for 2 weeks as we take our well earned break. WHAT A SEASON FINALE!!

As ever, I'm so very grateful to my good friend Jayne, who was not only there for us and shared sleeping in shocking conditions, but cooked all the meals - literally my 'chef' d'equipe 😃. Jayne has put so much into us, we wouldn't be here, I wouldn't even have dreamed of going this far, without her input.

And now - as Jayne said - since we're playing with the big boys, we need to look like the big boys and it's time to freshen up my 20+ year old kit with some bling. New sparkly browband, white gloves, white jodhs with some sparkle, a stock with some sparkle and a hair net/accessory that keeps my hair in and looks good.