April 2017 Update | Mari Akhurst

April 2017 News.

This month has been very busy; full of competitions and training. The weather has mostly been on our side and the sun has even had his hat on! I am hoping that the recent hail showers and the high winds that we have had in the last couple of days will pass very soon! I also got some very exciting news this month, read on to find out!

I started off the month with a visit to Performance Hertfordshire where I had a fantastic session. It was very hard work but great fun and I am pleased to say they could already see an improvement since my last visit; which means that all my hard work has been paying of even if my miss behaving body is not cooperating! They upped my programme and have given me some alternative exercises which will be very useful when certain pieces of equipment are in use. I am so lucky to be able to attend Performance Hertfordshire and get their expert opinion and work with my old S and C coach Fiona. A massive thanks has to go to The Douglas Bader Foundation for their very kind grant that has made this possible.

My lessons with Rob have been going really well with both horses. Bear is being a superstar and the contact is so much better. I rode in his new bridle (Devoucoux) for the first time this month which is super smart and judging by the way he went he loves it!

We took Bear to Vale View for a summer qualifier. So proud of Mr Bear he was an absolute superstar! It was our first competition of the year and our first time riding the new 2017 Individual test, which is a particularly hard test especially for me as I have no spatial awareness! He warmed up beautifully and felt amazing, unfortunately he had an uncharacteristic spook at the start of the test which disrupted the fluency of the test and he wasn’t very keen on going down the C end of the school! Poor boy had never seen a heat lamp before, but then it was only his 3rd sleepover! We still ended on a good score and got some points in the bag towards summer qualification. All mine and my teams hard work is starting to pay off. It was super to be back on Bear and at a competition again, especially after the start to the year we had! Bear has not been back in full work long and is still a baby; he has not seen much of the world so it’s all a learning curve. We had some really positive feedback from the judge and I am really looking forward to our next outing. A massive thank you to everyone who supports me especially all my fantastic sponsors! It was our first competition in my new Devoucoux bridle and saddle, which are just fantastic!

First lot of exciting news I am delighted to announce that my nomination for a ‘Backing the Best’ award has been successful. I cannot thank my NGB enough for nominating me. Thank you so much to TeamSportsAid and Sport_England for your support, it will make a huge difference to me this year #BackingTheBest

Second lot of exciting news I have been approved for a Challenged Athletes Foundation Grant. The grant has come all the way from America! I am honoured to be part of team CAF and this grant will help greatly. It is the mission of the Challenged Athletes Foundation to provide opportunities and support to people with physical challenges so they can pursue an active lifestyle through physical fitness and competitive athletics. The Challenged Athletes Foundation believes that.

Posted on 15th May, 2017.