Wow it’s been a busy month! Read on to find out what great things we have been up to this month and my exciting news.
I attended Your Horse Live to see two of my sponsors BETTA Life and Sorbeo Horse Bedding. I had a great day and really enjoyed sitting on their stands talking to current and prospective customers.
I cannot rate PharmaQuin highly enough and it was great to hear about all the success stories and positive reviews. It really does what it says and is the best joint supplement on the market. Both horses are going the best they have ever gone, which makes for a happy rider and lots of success; National and International Champions!!
It was also great to see Sorbeo Horse Bedding and hear about all the people that have tried and loved the bedding. We managed to convert lots of people as well! Why not try Sorbeo? You will have happy horses, it doesn’t smell, it’s not dusty and is super quick just a few of the many advantages of using this bedding! Check out http://www.sorbeohorsebedding.co.uk or contact the team who will be happy to help.
A massive thank you to BETTA Life and Sorbeo Horse Bedding for their continued support.
Both horses have stepped up their work and I am looking forward to competing them both. It will be Sky’s first outing from the new yard. We have been working really hard on Bear’s contact as well and can’t wait to show if off in competition.
Arctic One a local charity that supports me needs your help. All you need to do is to collect aluminium cans and be local enough to drop them off. The target initially is 1 TON (approx. 66000 Cans) and the proceeds will go to The Arctic One Foundation. Mum and I did our bit at the weekend dropping the cans we and mum’s colleagues from work have collected.
This month I got my reviews back from squad training which were all very positive. I also got my video footage back from the biomechanics session and training session with Angela. It is great to see how straight I am in the saddle and I’m sure that’s down to the Mobiliser. Bear also looked fantastic and the changes made to his saddle made a big difference.
I am really excited and honoured to say I have been asked to be an Ambassador for The Douglas Bader Foundation. I am looking forward to continuing to work with The Douglas Bader Foundation to inspire others to achieve their dreams. https://www.douglasbaderfoundation.com/dbf-news/mari-durward-akhurst-welcome-new-ambassador-for-the-dbf
I took Sky to a winter qualifier, he has already qualified for the winter championships but I just wanted to get him out before the winter sets in. He was a superstar and really enjoyed being back out at a party. I am very proud of Sky as we had lot thrown at us and we coped with it all and Sky was so good in a rather hectic warm up!!. In his test he was so rideable and produced moments of what we have been getting in training in the test. Really pleased to have got over 72%; with even more to come; exciting times.
Me and dad were invited to the Bucks and Mk Sports Awards for a 2nd year running; we had an amazing night; thank you so much for the invitation. It’s such a fantastic event and really shines a light on sport in Bucks and Milton Keynes and all the nominees and winners were worthy recipients. A truly inspirational talk from guest speaker Aaron Phipps; so many incredible achievements, from representing Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Thank you for sharing your incredible journey with us. We all have choices; a very important point! It’s what we decide to do with those choices that matters. It was also great to see fellow competitor Sophie Christiansen inducted into the Bucks & MK Sporting Hall of Fame. It was amazing to be invited as a guest alongside other Paralympians and Olympians; my name even got mentioned. It was great to catch up with sponsors that supported my Bucks Sporting Lunch Club and staff from Sports Aid as well as people that I met at last year’s event
Thank you so much to The Worshipful Company of Saddlers for presenting a head collar to the BD Nationals winners in each of the 5 grades. These were presented at the National Convention at Hartpury College. It was great to receive my head collar and thank you to them for their continued support.
It was Bears turn to go out to do a winter qualifier he needed just two more points to qualify for the Winter Championships. I was so proud of Bear; he was such a good boy even with a horse doing one time flying changes and Grand Prix movements down the side of our arena the whole way through our test. Not many Grade 1 horses that could cope with that; very proud mum! Hard work is paying off, the contact was super. We got 68.93% and we had a 5 and a few moments of tension (not every day a Grade 1 pony encounters a Grand Prix pony so close)! Exciting times ahead won’t be long before we start hitting the 70s!!
I am so lucky to have such a supportive team around me and the horses. I cannot believe that we are at the end of November already. We don’t have any outings planned until next year now so are going to have a hard training period over the next few months.