If I could tell my six-year-old self that one day I would be riding for Shane Breen, qualified for the under-23 championships at Olympia and writing my own blog for Horse & Hound, I’m not sure I would have believed it, especially judging on the position of my heels in the picture below of me and my favourite Mr Rockadura!
I should probably start from the beginning. I’m Georgia Tame, and I’m fortunate enough to be able to say that my job is my passion — I’m a showjumper.
My love for riding started at a very young age when mum put me on Mr Rockadura. This perfect 12.2hh pony probably deserves a place in the hall of fame as he started my career. He then went on to Peter Charles to teach Harry and his sisters the ropes, and is currently ruling the roost in the Williams yard with Guy’s children.
Me and Mr Rockadura
To fast forward a few (ish!) years, in 2015 when I was competing on the sunshine tour, I got approached by Ireland’s Shane Breen to become a student on his yard. Before I joined Breen Equestrian I had only ever done one world ranking class and although I like to think I wasn’t bad in the ring, I will admit that this is probably the moment my career rocketed.
It’s always a little daunting turning up to the yard of one of your idols, horse in tow, knowing that all you want to do is impress and not fall off, but the whole team here have always been welcoming and helpful and it’s great to be alongside riders (and friends) who are in the same boat (horses = life takeover and not much time for anything else!).
Riding all the horses at the Breen’s, youngsters to top international jumpers, looking after yearlings, working on the yard — it has all taught me so much and boosted my knowledge to be able to make horses my career. It also doesn’t hurt that this all happens at Hickstead Showground, my all-time favourite venue.
The cherry on the cake of course is the wonderful Z7 Cash Up, who, had I not joined the Breen Team, I would never have had the honour of riding. This boy is my absolute favourite horse and I couldn’t be more excited to be taking him to Olympia. We qualified back at Aintree in October (pictured top) taking runner-up spot in the qualifier and it is safe to say that since then, much of my training and time has been focused on getting ready to ride in the ring this coming Saturday.
Me with Cash Up
Cash Up and I have a busy schedule coming to the end of the year and moving into 2018 and I cannot wait to share all of it with you. We have training at Scott Brash’s this week to prep for Olympia. I’ll then probably not jump Cash Up until Saturday so he is fighting fit for the class (no rest for me sadly — #lifeofanequestrian).
Straight after Olympia we’re off to Dubai! Thanks to the amazing support of Team Z7 I will be going out to compete on the circuit for a few months (it’s a hard life, I so wanted to stay for England’s winter…!). Although a little nerve-wracking, I know I have the support of the team when I’m out there and I’ll have my boy Cash Up with me every step of the way.
Next week I’ll be recording my ‘Olympia experience’ and posting it on here so you can all go through the ups and downs (the less downs the better!) with me. So fingers crossed for us all and I’ll keep you updated!
Georgia
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