Steph’s blog: ‘I’m still in total shock’

Steph Croxford has a fabulous result in the Grand Prix at Addington, but decides she’s got 69-itis – a terrible condition caused by ‘silly errors’…

“I’m still in shock that we came second in the Grand Prix at Addington! The build up was terrible as we had a flooded arena one day and then it was frozen. So we only went in the school once and I ended up practicing my one-time changes out hacking and passaging down the road.

I said to Mr Hyde when we got there, ‘Just think of getting round mate!’.

When I saw the startlist were sandwiched between the UK’s top riders, which didn’t help matters. Charlotte was in after me, Spencer Wilton was right before me and then I had Carl three riders before that. Oh God! I actually feel calmer when I’m the underdog. If someone says, ‘you’ve got this in the bag’, I’m much worse. I can’t cope when I’m the favourite. But if no-one expects me to do well, there is no pressure, so I stay nice and relaxed and enjoy it.

My aim was to do what Richard [Davison] tells me when I’m schooling. Mr Hyde was a bit wild in the warm-up, bless him, but when we went in he said, ‘I’m with you mum’ and really tried for me. In the end not all of the big names came forward, but we got 69% even with a few mistakes – and had an awful halt to rein back! I think we’ve got 69-itis, as we keep on getting that score. It would be nice to get in the 70s, but we keep making silly errors. If get it right we could be quite good, so it’s a bit frustrating.

We got back home at 2am and only just made it up the hill in the snow. I thought we would have to walk up with Mr Hyde and the kids, but luckily Simon put his foot down and we made it.

We had to take Ben and Annabel with us well as there is no-one to look after them at home. We had a Burger King as a treat on the way down (the fuel of athletic champions…not!) and they were bathed and in the wagon by 5pm. Then they slept in the fold down bed on the way home.

Clooney did his first affiliated show. He got 67-something in the medium, and qualified for the Regionals. It’s pretty good considering he’s not been out since the summer and it was his first time at a new venue. It wasn’t the most relaxed test, but he tried very hard. We are going out this Sunday to do two more medium tests and we’ll be aiming him at advanced medium, soon.

Annabel’s riding is still going well. She is jumping 53cm – we know that because she measures everything she jumps! Ben is still practicing going ‘up down, up down, up down’ but he prefers football really. He’ll only ride if it’s not too cold or raining. Which is most of the time at the moment.

Annabel is well into it, although it’s hard to fit in with swimming and tennis. She got the record for the fastest backstroke for under eights at her club championship – so is doing really well. We won’t get into the whole Pony Club thing as that’s just another commitment and life is hectic enough as it is!

Speaking of which, I’ve got five minutes to load up Mr Hyde before my lesson with Richard.

Speak soon,”

Steph