Following the excitement at Carlisle, the plan had been to
run Paddy at Bangor then go away for our annual holiday to the North of
Scotland. We were balloted out at Bangor though so back to the drawing board!
We decided to cut short our holiday and hopefully run at Beverley instead
(thanks mum and dad).
Being away for the week before the race isn’t an ideal
preparation, but a good friend Liz Butterworth looked after Paddy for us and I
think he enjoyed his holiday as much as we did. I would normally be riding out
every day so I was worried about keeping
fit as well – luckily the holiday involved lots of walking up mountains which
hopefully cancelled out all the food!
We arrived back from Scotland late on the Friday night so we
collected Paddy early on Saturday morning and made our way over to Beverley, it
was great to see him again! Mum usually plaits up before we leave, but because
we had been away we didn’t have time and so for once we left him unplaited. We
arrived at the same time as Roy Day who also travelled over from Cumbria – his
pony looked fantastic and was the very deserving winner of the best turned out.
Thankfully, this time the saddle stayed in the right place
and Paddy ran a brilliant race to finish 1st by 6 lengths – I was so
pleased with him as he always tries so hard!
Thanks to everyone at Beverley Racecourse, the pony racing
stewards and jockey coaches, it was a really great day!
Last week we also got our GCSE results, it has been quite
difficult juggling riding and revising but thankfully my results were really
good! I am going on to 6th Form to do Geography, History, Biology
and Philosophy – eventually I hope to go on and study Law at University and
then specialise in Sports Law.
Next stop York for the Conditions Race finals! I can’t wait!
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