competition in Taipei

[gIlBeRt]

Hey there all!!!

Thought that now i'm over jetlag i can waffle on about my trip to Taipei!!!!

What an awesome experience!!! If anyone can have to opptournity to do it i reccomend it!!! It was a lot harder than i thought it would be but i am so happy to have an experience like that under my belt!!!

All the organisers and hosts are so very friendly!!! I'm very over noodles and do not want to eat Chinese food for a LONG long time!!!

The way they run their comps are very different to here! It was their first time running such a large comp that they had a lot of bridges to cross. But it was intresting that if someone objected about something...they just changed the rules!!!! There were a few nice horses there and a few nice riders but most of them had that curb rein WAY WAY to tight!!!

What was really cool was that they had a welcoming dinner, an opening ceromney and a farewell party just like the olympics. And it felt so good and i was so proud to be able to walk around carring the Aussie flag!!! Go Australia!!! And if Nicole Tough (Australia's Chef) couldn't yell out "WAY TO GO QUEENSLAND WAY TO GO" it was "AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE OI OI OI" at the top of her lungs!!! We certinately got some "those crazy australians" looks!!!

All the other competitiors were so friendly and we all had a great time getting to know eachother!!!!

The weather was miserable and cold and i of course didn't bring a jacket. I don't know what i was thinking especially when my Dad told me that it has been raining over there!!!

The horse i got, Push Kin was a nice tall bay who was very lame to the left. We tried to tell them but they just said that "horse is sensitive". I was a bit bummed thinking what am i going to do with a lame horse tomorrow but then i found out that one of the Singapore riders got bucked off her horse 3 TIMES!!!!!!! in the one test ride. So i decided that i was happy with my lame horse becuase i stayed on him. So the next day when we had to compete he wasn't lame @ all?!?!?!?!? So i stayed on, remembered the test which ment i achieved both my goals!!! I also got a bonus to qualify into the final round with an 8th and 60%!!!!

The showjumper, Michael Lucas from NSW has to wait untill the very end until he got to ride!!! all the other showjumpers got to ride their horses 2 times beofre he did in the team event! A little unfair but he got the pick of the best horse of the worst if that makes any sence(the horses that didn't qualfy)? So he managed to stay on to which i thought was great considering how many falls there had been with the jumpers!!! (Seeing all this just made me prove why we do Dressage!!!) He managed to go around only having one refusal with a couple of rails and came 12th overall!!! We all thought that he could have nailed it had he been in the team event to get to know the horse a little better!!!! But what can you do!

We went on a sight seeing tour to see the world tallest building for 4 more months...the 101!!!! And had a chance to do some shopping if we wanted to get a pair Louis Vitton thongs for $3000AUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not my cup of tea. I'd rather get another horse!!!

My final horse, i had a chestnut called Golden Dream who could have fallen asleep in the middle of the test had my leg come off!!! He was sweet and kind but a bit dead to my leg. We managed to get a 62% and a 7th for a 7th overall!!!!! I also achieved my two goals on him. To stay on and remember the test! What i was so happy with was that i was just over 1% from a bronze!!!!

All in all it was a fantastic time, met some lovely people and will not forget my trip over there!!!! I would LOVE to do it again!!!Nicole was an awesome chef but i think she is sick of my sleep talking in the middle of the night!!!!

Oh...and i never want to get on another aeroplane again!!! Not untill next year anyway!!!