​Ups, downs and Cambodia!

Well hello! What a season it’s been - my personal season has been a huge journey and this has definitely been my most successful season to date (and this is Storm’s first full season on Cool, Calm & Collected - coincidence?!). Eventing is full of highs and lows, and I have certainly experienced both extremities in 2015. Storm and I are contesting the novice at Oasby this weekend, it’s been a long time coming after a unsuccessful start to the season but after spending lots of time ‘fixing’ everything, I am more than confident that we are well prepared to give it our best shot! I spent the Summer at both Emma Hyslop and Emily Lochore’s yards and I am hugely thankful for all the support and training they gave me, I would not be in the position I am in now without their incredible coaching.

Alongside the busy eventing Summer, I ventured to Cambodia for just under a month (how I managed that in the middle of the season - I will never know!!) I was volunteering at a school teaching English to the underprivileged children in the neighbourhood. It was an experience I will treasure forever and I saw some stunning parts of Asia during my time travelling. None the less, I rang home every day to keep up to date on how the horses were!! Credit to my wonderful Mum who kept the top boy fit for me! I arrived home at Heathrow at 10pm on the Thursday and evented at Keysoe with an 8am dressage on the Saturday - he was on flying form and finished 4th… Perhaps I should spend more time away if that’s the result we get after not riding for 4 weeks?! I also have Equifeast to thank for his relaxed nature - anyone who knew this horse before he went onto Cool, Calm & Collected would know that he was certainly not an easy horse and incredibly spooky. The thought of me not being able to ride him for 4 weeks and to hop back on a day before an event wouldn’t even be an option a year ago. I honestly can’t believe the difference, it is now showing in his everyday actions as well as his ridden work.

I have also started university in September - after a long 2 years out of education, I decided that I wanted to go down the route of physiotherapy (human… sorry!!) and so I am now studying in Cardiff and loving every second of my course. I hope to bring Storm down to Wales for pre-season, and then we will be all set to start the season with a bang! Being at a sporting university, they are very understanding of athletes needing time off to compete and train so I am very lucky to have the leniency with that - especially when my horse is 3 hours away from me!! Between now and my Christmas break, Storm will have a more relaxed exercise routine to give him a bit of chill out time after a intense season. I will then bring him back into full work over my Christmas break and focus on some dressage and show jumping to keep us both ticking over.

We have also had a new barn built at home with everything I could wish for (and more!) inside it, so it will be great to get settled into that and make use of all the fab facilities! I am hoping to put a solarium on the wish list in the near future, so if anyone has any recommendations I would love to hear them!

With regards to next season - who knows what will happen! Hopefully after giving Storm the time to gain his confidence again at 100 level, the step back up to Novice will be smooth and we then have a platform to build from when the 2016 season starts. It would be nice to aim for Houghton CCI* and then maybe attempt to step up to intermediate again. 

Beth Symington