Report by Rebecca Parsler.

I went to the Interegionals at Barbury Castle on7-9th August 2009.   Me , my Dad and my big sister Tasha had been selected for the Eastern Region team, from Cromwell group. Gilly, the chef d’equipe, took my pony Havannah in her trailer with her horse because we only have space for two in our trailer. We followed up the next day with my sisters and Dads ponies Talisman and Shine.

When we got to the venue, after looking out the windows at all the huge fields and rolling hills, saying how fun it would be the next day, we found where Havannah had been put out in a corral and unloaded Shine and Tally.   As we were bringing them to the gate to the corral area, Havannah saw us and jumped out of her corral and galloped across the field ducking and jumping other peoples corrals as she went,  causing a bit of a spectacle for all the people setting up camp!  We managed to catch her when she met the wooden fence and led her back to the corrals with Talisman and Shine.

After setting up camp we had a team meeting, met all the other members of our regional team and got our bright pink kit, Dad looked lovely. We later on went to eat at a restaurant with very slow service and a lack of bacon for Tasha. We eventually got back very late, but Mum and Dad were soon out again in search of Mum’s left behind handbag. An hour or so later all the drama was over and we got to sleep.

The next day we collected in the ponies and groomed them before heading off to the vet. It took ages to get through the vet as Havannah’s legendary low heart rate had hit its record at 24 bpm and all the vets including the chief vet all came over as they didn’t believe it. Havannah did get jokingly accused of ‘cheating’ because she drops and skips heartbeats all over the place. Once we were finished there we returned to the trailer and finished grooming and tacking up. Me and Natasha put white bows in our ponies manes and sprayed slightly wonky silver stars on their bums, which did get some comments from our team.

Natasha and me showing off our lovely pink team kit! (Photo by Eric Jones)

Setting off along the racecourse with fellow team member Pippi on a borrowed horse all the ponies were energetic and pulling to go.  The first part of the route is on grass track the whole way, which is good to get a decent start, almost the whole ride was on downs and ridge ways with little roadwork. We got back in good time and got vetted, Havannah got a grade 1 and shine a grade 4.  Sadly Talisman was vetted out and our team vet confirmed that he had thrown a splint and prescribed 6 weeks off work. (not such good news for Dad’s plans for the rest of the season)

After we saw the horses relaxing once again in thier corralls we went up to the trade stands for lunch. Mum had spotted a cheap free ‘n easy saddle she wanted but unfortunately it was gone by then. We were sitting above the vetting area eating cakes and watched a pair of riders having a racing finish and also the only 160km rider to finish and joined in the cheering when she crossed the line and passed the vet.

At the prize giving there was more cheering as the Barbury Champion was presented with her rug and rosettes. Our regional team was placed 7th and me and Tasha also got a 3rd place young riders medal. All in all it was a good ride at a great venue and I’d like to go again.

Rebecca Parsler