Some of you may already know but for the rest of you let me officially announce that Team Graney are taking part in the Wobbleberries Challenge in aid of the late Hannah Francis’s Willberry Wonder Pony Cancer Charity! So what does that mean it means I have to find my big girl pants and kick on to do something I havent done in many years – I have until Autumn 2017 to complete a British Eventing affiliated BE80T event.
For those of you not familar with eventing it consists of a rider and their horse competing in this case of the period of one day but as you get more advanced over three days in dressage, cross country and show jumping basically! Its no mean feat and starting off as a middle aged mum with young horses that are also complete loons it will prove interesting lol. Yes I used to be an eventing groom and yes I used to ride professionally myself and yes I have managed international yards in several equestrian sports however most of that was very many years ago so there will be blood, sweat and tears over the coming year no doubt.
As if that wasnt enough I am also one of the South West reps and the Wiltshire co-ordinator for the challenge so responsible for supporting and helping over 30 riders of all levels to also do the same challenge (with a lot of help from a great team of coaches, supporters, family and friends as well as the HQ Team for the challenge).
In many ways I am extremely lucky as we have our own yard, a private arena just around the corner, a team of coaches I already work with and of course seven horses/ponies of which I can personally ride and compete four of them 🙂 Who am i competing –
Spike A Saurus, 17.2hh ISH
Predicament, 16.3hh Exracer TB
Glorious Protector, 16.2hh Exracer TB
Elle’s Boy, 13.2hh New Forest
We do of course also have Diva our retired Section A and Pearl and Ruby our two American Miniature Shetlands as well as cheer leaders lol!
I will be asking for sponsorship, I will be begging for sponsorship and even hounding some people for sponsorship but before I go any further I must thank my amazing hubby Colin Graney and his business Garden Elf for sponsoring me so generously. In addition to my hubby my bosses at Severn Sales Laboratory Equipment & Furniture (in particular Mr Geoff Biggs) have and are also sponsoring me!
You can of course also get involved and help me towards my sponsorship total goal by just jumping onto my Just Giving Page and donating – it all helps so any donation is most gratefully received! In addition to my normal blog posts on Team Graney I will be sharing our journey and stories along the way so check back soon and come along for the ride 😉