Chloe Chubb’s showing blog: Olympia butterflies are fluttering
It’s almost here — two more days and I will (fingers crossed) be at Olympia horse show preparing for my class on Monday morning. The last week has gone so fast.
Until today we had faired okay on the weather front, but I guess Olympia wouldn’t be Olympia without the snow — so snow we have. I just hope it doesn’t hit us too hard so everyone is able to get there safely.
I would like to say I feel perfectly calm, but for once I really don’t. I’m never a nervous rider, but at the moment even seeing the pictures of the Olympia arena is sending butterflies to my stomach. I just keep imaging all the things that could go wrong! Pop has never seen anything like Olympia before so we really don’t know how he will react and you can’t really recreate that unique atmosphere so the general consensus is to just go for it!
As they say, you have nothing to lose — you have already got there, which in my eyes is a huge success in itself — but I’m not going to lie and say I won’t be a bit disappointed if Pop doesn’t go well. I am not worried about getting placed, but I just want to look like we deserve to be there!
So far Pop seems to have kept himself in one piece, although I think he is now quite bored of having five rugs on a day and can’t understand why he is being groomed so much. I think Jo is looking forward to the day when it no longer takes her half an hour to rug him back up.
We haven’t been out to a show in a while so I hope he manages to remember what he is doing on Monday. Hopefully he will be on good form having been enjoying his hacking, going up the gallops and the odd bit of schooling. I’ve also been practising my in-hand every time I’ve ridden so fingers crossed we won’t end up in the stands with the audience!
Everything else has really slowed down now as I have just started a new job, which involves getting up to London a lot earlier than before, so Sandy and Francis have officially started their Christmas holiday with me becoming a weekend rider! It was weird for the first few days going up in the dark just to feed them, but to be honest it’s quite nice not to be getting soaking wet and freezing cold before going into work. I still find this time of year a bit depressing though — going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark — but I suppose it won’t be long until the season starts again.
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I guess this is about it from me for now. Even as I am writing this I am getting butterflies! I really hope Pop and I can do everyone proud. Getting to Olympia is such a huge team effort and this dream would never be coming true without all of the people who have helped me along the way, so huge thanks to you all.
Special thanks to my ‘team’ who will be at Olympia: my mum, team Rowfantina especially Oliver, Jo and Mandy, Justin and Heidi from Popsters Stud and my best friend Lauren, who has the fun job of keeping me calm. And finally to all the wonderful Welsh Section Cs competing; let’s try and get the breed up there! Good luck to everyone who has qualified — let’s hope we all have a wonderful day, and if all else fails, we always have Santa!
Chloe
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Chloe is a successful amateur showing rider and judge, who has been blogging on Horseandhound.co.uk since 2010. She mainly competes in ridden Mountain & Moorland classes with her team of ponies, as well as riding for other people. She lives in Kent and works full-time in London, so has to fit the ponies in around work.