Hi guys,
Well we are here at the beautiful Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials!
We arrived on Tuesday in glorious sunshine and joined the queue for the vet check alongside Mark (Todd) which was quickly and efficiently done. The afternoon shot past as Hen (my super groom and friend for the weekend), mum and I got things organised and made sure Zo was settled. Like most of the Badminton pros, later I went on a long hack around the park and started to get my bearings. There can’t be many better ways to fill an afternoon than a hack around the Badminton estate.
Wednesday began with a training session on the flat. Getting on was my biggest problem as Zo was over-keen to get going. However once we got to the practice arenas she worked really well and I was extremely pleased with her.
Zo at the first trot-up
Time runs away at these events and once I had stretched Zo off mum and I literally had to run to find Gina at the Equiclass stand to pick up the boots for my trot-up outfit. As time was so tight we tried to take a short cut back to the village hall for briefing and luckily bumped into Hugh and Mandy Thomas who kindly gave us a lift there! Briefing over it was time for arena familiarisation, a chance for me to walk in that famous arena for the first time.
Continued below…
Danielle Dunn’s Badminton first-timer blog: ‘It’s going to be an unbelievable week’
Danni talks us through her very final preparations
Zo seemed completely chilled — let’s hope she is as chilled on Friday! Then it was onto the trot-up itself. Hen did the most brilliant job and Zo looked amazing. Helena Smith from CharlestonCouture who designed the jacket I wore produced a stunning outfit for me. To my amazement and delight I won the ladies’ best dressed prize, a huge thank you to all involved.
Well I am now off to take my first look at the cross-country course — I will let you know what I think later on.
Danni
