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January 2009
Jayden wins the B Final in Frankfurt-70%!
For Jayden Brown and myself, the final of the Young Rider World cup in Frankfurt was a fantastic experience and a great success. Jayden and his horse Widello traveled to Germany in early December to spend some time training with Leonie Bramall. I followed them over a week before the big show. In no time the big day had arrived, the gear was packed and we were off to what was to be the experience of a lifetime.
The horse traveled to Frankfurt on a transport. We drove the hire car down and arrived ahead of Widelo to get things sorted. Once we had bought our hay and had Manny settled, Jayden had his first ride. In a 40 by 40 arena there were six carriage teams, several show jumpers jumping two practice jumps. Big pipes pumping blasts of hot air onto the horses as they rode passed and a few brave dressage riders. After a short ride Jayden decided that Widelo "doesn't do" carriage horses!
There was some stress when the time for the trot up was changed and we didn't know. We were able to plait the horse in a record 3 minutes and I think that is the first time I have ever seen Jayden a little stressed! Needless to say he passed with flying colours.
Widelo has been going extremely well and Jayden has really enjoyed his time in Germany with Leonie. The quality of horses in the YR competition is amazing. Jayden described them to me as a whole lot of 'little Salineros'.
There was no point in being intimidated by the quality of competition or the fact that you were always dodging the likes of Isobel Werth, Monica Theodorescu, Nadine Capplemen while warming up.
Jayden headed out to the first test fairly confident until disaster struck and Widelo decided that he didn't like something at E and had a little run backwards. Jayden coped well but then the Judge at C pulled him up for and error which he wasn't able to explain. Jayden did well to get over 60% but it was a disaster.
The second test gave Jayden a good feeling but there were lots of little mistakes so his score was still low. During the weekend Jayden was getting more and more ill and by the time the freestyle came around we were all fairly concerned. We left Jayden to himself for most of the day. The support crew of Hayley and Debbie Brown, Leonie Bramall, Kyla Reid and myself tried to make everything as easy and stress free as possible.
Jayden spent most of the day sleeping or tweaking his music. His warm up went without incident and he went in and rode the best Freestyle he has ever done. His score of 70% was well deserved and there was a fair bit of excitement out in the warm up arena.
He won the B final so he enjoyed the experience of riding out into the beautiful arena in Frankfurt in the spot light and I have to say that it was quite special to hear the Australian Anthem played.
Jayden was really satisfied and happy for about ten minutes after the prize giving. He then just looked green and was obviously seriously sick so we rushed him back to the exquisite Hotel that they put us up in and got him to bed.
The rest of us went out to celebrate on Jayden's behalf and had a great time in the surprisingly beautiful Aldstat in Frankfurt.
So a huge congratulations to Jayden for his outstanding effort. A big thanks to Leonie Bramall for all of her support and friendship. We couldn't have managed without her.
Of course I can't forget Hayley and Debbie Brown who were always in the background picking up the pieces over the weekend. Leonie told me that Debbie may have had a little tear in her eye when the Aussie flag was raised. The lovely Kyla Reid was also with us for the weekend and she was an absolute hit every where we went from the moment she charmed her way into the venue to when she came back three times to say goodbye!
Thanks also to the very lovely Hayley Beresford who we met for the first time and 'hung out' with for a lot of the weekend.(We had been facebook friends for a while!) Hayley is just a beautiful rider and a terrific person. She is doing such a great job on both of her lovely horses. She was very supportive with Jayden and she's what I call the real deal.
We also would like to thank Dressage Qld, Equestrian Qld and the Qld Young Riders committee and all those individuals involved for their generous help in getting Jayden to this event. It is great to have such a supportive group behind us.
Thanks also to all of the sponsors and organisers of the show. The experience was certainly one to remember. See more photographs in the scrap book.