At least five times in the past few days I’ve uttered the words “…when we’re out eventing next week”, promptly stopped in the middle of my train of thought, and gazed off into the middle distance like one of those memes of sad dogs waiting for their husbands to return from the war.
Yes, that.
You see, it’s not that I’m sad that eventing season is starting — no, definitely not that at all. Slightly unprepared? Perhaps. Maybe a little bit too fat after a winter of eating away the cold? Um, guilty. But mostly, I’m just shocked — SHOCKED — that the new season has finally deigned to appear, without so much as a weather warning to mar the way.
Obviously, this means cramming in as much last-minute prep as possible: setting up some tricky bending lines, jumping every ditch we come across, and, of course, binging as many useful training videos as possible. That’s why I was delighted to stumble upon and rewatch The Arena Show, which was produced by The Gaitpost last winter. In their early-2018 eventing special, they covered all the important stuff: training tips with Caroline Moore, turnout advice from supergroom Alex Van Tuyll, and a visit to Badgerstown, the base of Kiwi extraordinaire Mark Todd. Consider my eventing season excitement levels boosted to the max.
