Hartpury Festival of Dressage 6-10th July 2015 CPEDI3* Report - Caitlin Radford

Hartpury Festival of Dressage 6-10^th July 2015 CPEDI3* Report - Caitlin Radford

On Monday 25^th May 2015, I received a letter from Chris Webb (High Performance Manager EA) advising me that I had been selected to represent Australia at Hartpury, Gloucester UK from the 6^th -10^th July. Mum and I could barely contain our excitement and could not believe it!

With only 5 weeks to organise and prepare for the trip, there wasn’t much time for fundraising. All costs except an Australian shirt and cap were to be covered by the athletes.  On Thursday 18^th June we held a Fundraiser at Dannebrog Café Bar and Grill. The owner and one of my sponsors, Jan had very generously provided his restaurant, staff and food with all proceeds of the evening going towards my trip. Friends, family and people that I had never meet as well as our Dressage family donated prizes for the raffle and silent auction and came on the night. I also received many cash donations for which I am very grateful.

My training routine was altered by an arthritis attack, which left me on crutches and in hospital less then a week before I was to leave. Fortunately it went as fast as it came, and once exams finished, I was able to concentrate on Hartpury.

On Wednesday July 1^st, we flew from Devonport to Melbourne where we cross-pollinated with several other members of the Team and Support crew while we waited. It was a long day due to delays and we eventually left Tullamarine about 2.30am on the Thursday morning.  15 hours to Dubai and then another 7 hours to London and then another 3 by hire car to Hartpury.

Hartpury was very warm and the country side very lush and green. Our accommodation consisted of a basic dorm room with its own little bathroom and was nice and close to the stables. We had arrived early to give us a few days to become acquainted with our borrowed horses. Hartpury has one main indoor competition arena, 2 other indoor arenas and enough stables for nearly 400 horses and competitors.

My adopted sister Emma Booth was staying off site for a few days to get to know the beautiful stallion, Wagner. Zoe (my twin) and Katie were coming by truck from Holland and had delays due to strikes and for Anne and I, George and Milo were delivered on Friday morning. I am very thankful to Carrie Payne for loaning Milo to me.  We would train in the morning and go for short very “entertaining” drives in the afternoon with many dolphonic laughs. We drove past the Cathedral that was used for the Harry Potter films. Whilst in our temporary stables, 2 damaged wheel burrows were located in the dumpster. With some good old Australian ingenuity by Selector Sue Bright, we soon had two very usable wheel burrows. Hartpury Staff tried to acquire them back, but Zoe soon stepped in insisting that they would stay with us for the duration of our competition!!

Milo (Camillo Van De Ponderosa) and I didn’t really hit it off on the first day as we were both tired and getting to know each other, but every training session we improved.  On Tuesday morning horses were vet checked and then we moved camp and moved into the FEI stables. All horses passed trot up Tuesday afternoon. On the Tuesday night before competition the Team was announced at our team meeting and I was advised that I had made the 4 member team that would be competing for Australia’s Team position at the Rio Paralympics. We also received a personal message from Michael Clarke and the Australian Cricket Team, wishing us the best of luck. I also had a wonderful surprise visit from Amelia Griffiths who is holidaying in Europe and  who came to watch.  

I had 3 great tests over the 3 days and every day my scores improved and I had a personal best in the freestyle of 68.8%. I placed 5^th in both the Team and Individual Grade IV tests and 4^th in the Freestyle.  Our Team placed 4^th overall. My first test was the Team Test, I was extremely happy with the test (For those that know me I even remembered to smile through parts of the test!) and once we got into the indoor it was like Milo became a new horse and really tried his heart out. The test wasn’t collected enough but it was clean for 63.262% and 5^th place!  The next day was the Individual championship, Milo wasn’t feeling as good in the warm up as he did the day before but again once he got in the arena he changed and the test felt even better than the day before. It was more forward and up and we were given a 64.167% and 5th again. Wednesday night the decision was made that we needed to change the music’s tempo as it was Boy’s music and it was too quick for Milo. Wonder woman Julia Battams got her laptop out and performed some magic and slowed the music down to suit Milo. The last day was bitter sweet; on the Friday we had the Freestyle, the best day out of all of them. Milo had a small moment in the warm up with the crowds clapping and cheering but he gathered himself back up and was back with me quickly. I had to do some quick thinking in the freestyle as we were in front of the music so we had to do a couple of turns and circles before the walk transition and the trot transition at the end. Thankfully the judges didn’t notice that it wasn’t part of the plan and we were rewarded with a personal best score of 68.800%!

On the Thursday of our competition the “big guns” started to move into the stables. Carl Hester, Charlotte Dujardin, Nip Tuck, and Valegro were in the same isle as us but the next barn down. Anne and I managed to meet Valegro. We were just so excited. On Friday his groom Allen Davies was in the wash bay next to our stables washing Blueberry. He was lovely and answered all our questions and allowed me to pat Blueberry while I was trying not to or faint or cry! Later that day we learnt that the Team placed fourth which was cause for great excitement. We were also able to watch and cheer on UK based Australian rider Casey Stickland. She is a former student of Hartpury College and I am not sure if she was embarrassed or not! We were all screaming and cheering for her and everyone else was like ‘what the?’.

Gradually Team members, grooms, support crew and horses left, just leaving Mum, my coach Susan Elekessy and I. We stayed an extra couple of days so we could see Charlotte and Valegro compete.  On the penultimate day I eventually got enough courage and feeling brave, I introduced myself to Charlotte and presented her with a small gift of a Saddle Saver made by Amanda Baker. I was so excited that I can’t even remember what I said. Charlotte is lovely and posed with Valegro and I for a photo. This was just the icing on the cake for what has been the most amazing week.

I would particularly like to thank our officials, Chris Webb (High Performance Manager EA), Julia Battams (Team Coach), Sally Francis (Chef d’Equipe), Vic Kahn (SSSM Manager) and Sue Bright (Selector) for all their support, guidance and friendship during the trip. Also Team Members Anne Skinner, Zoe Vorenas, Emma Booth, Katie Umback and their support crews, my own Coach Susan Elekessy and all my sponsors, family and friends who supported me. There will be a video of the trip to come soon. I am very grateful to you all. I have learnt so much and I will be working hard with my new horse XL Overtime so that I am able to represent my country again in the future.

Caitlin Radford