Badminton Horse Trials blog: Sarah Stretton’s dream ends here

Unfortunately my Badminton Horse Trials 2010 diary finishes here.

After visiting the doctor last Tuesday, he decided it would be in my best interests to leave three stitches in across my kneecap. With these left in, I still have limited movement and I made myself an aim after the fall that if I were to compete at Badminton then Bobby (Lazy Acres Skip On) and I must have a run round Belton.

Realistically, I knew even that would be mentally tough for me, to head to our first Badminton on the back of one advanced run. That was the marker which I set to make my decision of yay or nay.

Although it was absolutely gutting to send the withdrawal email, I knew deep down that I was doing the right thing for both myself and Bobby and I wanted to go knowing I had a good shot at doing well and doing us both justice.

This also eased the pressure on the yard. Naomi (my aunt) has been working very hard to try to keep Bobby up to four-star fitness which is obviously double the amount of work any usual horse would have, so with the decision made she can now ease off and let him join the others’ work regime.

Badminton final scores

I’m hoping to run him at Aston-le-Walls open intermediate to get us back into the swing of things and then Brigstock advanced intermediate with my sights set firmly on Bramham’s under-25 championships. The rest of my stitches come out on Thursday so with a lot of physio and willpower I’ll get there.

When I am back in the saddle I shall just be concentrating on Bobby until I am 100% so Owen Moore will still be competing the others. The last thing I need is to aggravate or injure it even more especially on the horses that are not as well trained or established as Bobby.

As for the rest of the season, Bobby will be heading to Burghley and I’ll definitely be aiming for a much better result there (Sarah and Bobby are pictured above finishing 37th at Burghley last year) and I’ll just have to wait for Badminton 2011 instead.

Sarah

Find all Sarah Stretton’s diaries here

Don’t forget Alex Hua Tian is still planning to make his Badminton debut and has a weekly diary on H&H online — find his diaries here

Find all H&H’s Badminton coverage here

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