Hi everyone! I’m Heather and my mare is Socks – you might have met us before in Graduated and Raring To Go, a blog I wrote for the lovely people at Your Horse magazine. Sadly, I finally had to admit to myself that I’m not newly graduated any more…

If you’ve met us before – thanks for coming back! If not, welcome to our world of hysteria and goal setting.

We had a great year in 2018 and we finally achieved our goal of getting eventing – after giving up jumping altogether in 2016, when both of us lost our nerve. Those days are far behind us now, and with the help of our trainer, Phoebe, the rest of the TWF group and of course, my wonderful Mum (and her youngster, Gem), we’re raring to go for 2019.

Kick, and breathe, and kick, and breathe!

Phoebe, anytime we jump anything

Positive riding for me goes hand in hand with positive thinking. As soon as I made myself ride like I meant it, Socks started to mean it, and we both gained confidence together, straight out of nothing at all. Having a good support group around me gave me so much of a boost, but what 2018 taught me was that if I want something, I have to make it happen. And this is what I plan to do in 2019. The ultimate goals for the year are to get a double clear at BE80 and complete a 90 – but there’s nothing worse for me than pressure. If it’s not fun, there’s no point!

Of course, determined as I am, I still suffer with my nerves and they still remain my biggest barrier to doing well if I let them get the better of me. I’m the world’s worst for not stopping to celebrate my successes – already thinking I should be completing the next challenge before I finished the first – so I wanted to write this blog partly to remind myself to stay positive and share anything I find that helps, and mostly because the combination of an OTT-TB and me (#hystericalheather) can be… humorous.

Goals

Thinking my teenage horse might appreciate some quiet time after what turned out to be our busiest summer yet, I deliberately left both November and December free of competition. I was wrong. Socks did not want any quiet time, and is now bored stiff. So, we’ve got some goals for before the event season starts:

• Complete a British Novice showjumping round
• Qualify for the Petplan Area Festivals at Novice

In the years where we weren’t jumping, Socks and I were full time dressage divas. We’re now in the closet about it. Don’t tell anyone I’m actually really excited at the prospect of getting out and doing some pure dressage again…

Photo credit: Lili Brooksby-Dalby at Brooksby Dressage

The showjumping, on the other hand, is something we got close to last year. I just know we can do it. It’s just a case of, you know, doing it.

We’ll keep kicking on, keep breathing, and we’ll get there.

Keep up with me on social media

Twitter: @oneteemussett
Instagram: heathermussett