As you all know WORC has an excellent quadrille.

We went up to London on Saturday 20th December and had a very good journey. First thing I really wanted to do (not sure if all the others did) was unload our wonderful horses onto the road, this made me and Dude feel like professionals! We had our stables given to us and we started to unpack all our costumes from the cars! We had taken a tack locker for each horse with everything in it (thank-you Jasmine)! It took quiet a long time to unload however when it was done and all outside our stables it looked like tonnes for one night! We also went and got our wristbands! Thankfully Dad, Tom and Aaron drove the horseboxes to the parking and we started to move our stuff into accessible places, all our horses were absolutely amazing and settled in really well, we were lucky enough to have stables next to all of the Metropolitan Police Ride, The Ukrainian Cossacks and a barrier away from Michael Whittaker’s horses and himself! We got to our accommodation and got about five hours sleep due to the fact we refused to leave our ponies once we had watched the evening show jumping.

Well, we intended to send four members to represent the Riding Club on Sunday 5th October. Sadly, 2 of those members were unable to make the final leaving just Elaine Baber and myself. This meant that we could not enter a team and would have to forgo the opportunity of riding the Red Dragon course. Having spoken to the organisers we were told that two other clubs, namely Cambridge Royal and Penzance were in the same boat and, if we were happy, we could make a team of six with them. So, ‘The Allsorts’ were born created from a team of 4 from WORC and Penzance plus 2 individuals from Cambridge.

Elaine travelled to the venue on Thursday with a colleague of ours, who was competing over three days there, and set up our corralling and parking while I transported her horse Akzent (Ace) with Dutch Adventure (Sasha). We arrived at the venue about 3.30 on the Saturday afternoon, unloaded our horses and settled them into their new ‘fields’ for the weekend. Luckily I saw the forecast and took a heavy duty rug with me as the temperature dropped overnight to 4 or 5 degrees. Brrr. We met all of our ‘team mates’ in the big office awaiting the BRC Team Briefing that evening and discovered that one of the Cambridge riders couldn’t bring her horse as it was lame that morning. And so there were 5. We had a good chat and discussed our likely strategy for the Sunday.

We have to present to the vet within 30 minutes of finishing the ride so we jumped off our horses, untacked and cooled them down as best we could to try and reduce their heart rate. Off we all went to see if we could all pass with sound and healthy horses…. Yes, we all got through with good scores in hydration, movement and heart rates. Wow!

The horses were all put back in their pens and we went off to get a drink and something to eat (a large coffee and a sausage & cheese bap) as we hadn’t eaten since about 8am and it was now about 4pm. Then we went to see how we had got on with our grading and collect our individual rosettes. The team had one grade one and three grade twos. We just had to wait for the scores now.

The presentation was at 4.30pm and all 14 teams gathered and sat with baited breath in one of the meeting rooms. All of the teams were presented with rosettes and our names didn’t come out first so, at least we weren’t 14th… or 13th, 12th, 11th, 10th, 9th, 8th, 7th… OMG we were 6th!!!

We were so happy that we, a rag tag group of girls from 3 different clubs could have achieved so much. It was a wonderful experience and the other endurance riders, of all levels including EGB, were so lovely and offered so much advice freely. I found a good friend this weekend as well as coming home with a very happy horse and 2 rosettes.

Natalie Neal

I would just like to thank these girls so much for a brilliant weekend. Although we didn't finish in the ribbons we had so much fun and I believe the girls did the Riding Club proud. They were polite, helpful and gracious in defeat, remaining smiley and so completely thrilled with their horses.

Only Morgan and I had stayed away from home before but not with Dixie, so we were so proud that all the horses took it in their stride and Dawn hadn't even met Bethany before picking her and her horse up!

So thank you girls, fingers crossed you all qualify again next year!

Rachel Crockford (junior competitor Mum - aka, unpaid and under appreciated groom)

Morgan-Beth Crockford, Georgia Amer and Bethany Howard show their team spirit!

The weather leading up to 27th July was absolutely sweltering with the temperature at 11am on Saturday 26th already at 29 degrees! Luckily it was slightly cooler on 27th at 11am when we started our ride. Not a lot, but we were fortunate enough to be riding through a lot of forested areas making the ride much cooler and softer under foot.

All three of us in our team rode the whole ride together managing to record an almost perfect time of 12.68kph. We all finished our 31k ride with big smiles on our faces and completed the vetting process without any hitches even though Izzie’s pony, Aries, lost a shoe on route. What a little super star he his. As a pony he keeps up with the dynamo leader Sasha (the one with the long legs and ears) stunningly well. Ace, Elaine’s horse, is such a cool customer and just takes everything in his stride.

Ace recorded the lowest heart rate at the end and gained a fabulous Grade 2, Sasha recorded her lowest heart rate yet and gained a Grade 3 with Aries scoring a Grade 4. Aries has to work twice as hard being the only pony on the team (not that he knows it!).

We were so excited at finally recording a team score that we forgot to take photos of us all with our beautiful rosettes. Never mind, the next one is at Barbury Castle on 10th August. This should be a really special ride for the team of four going that day. Two of whom are new to the discipline so I wish them luck. I will be riding at Barbury Castle but as part of the Cotswold Endurance GB team this time and our start times are quite different but hope to be able to meet and greet them on their return from the ride.

Natalie Neal

The ‘West Oxfordshire Wanderers’ consisted of:-

Natalie Neal, Dutch Adventure

Leigh Fenton, Babe

Sue Whiting, Courageous Colour

Elaine Baber, Akzent

The team passed the farrier check and pre-ride vetting with good marks and horse heart rates enabling us all to start the ride.

We fairly quickly split into 2 groups of 2 to accommodate each of our different horses paces.

Leigh and I finished the ride in 2h 15mins; an average speed of 14.58kph - just a tad quick! Sue and Elaine finished in 2h 37mins; a perfect average speed of just under 13kph.

The post event vetting went well for Dutch Adventure (Sasha) as she had done this before and was relatively chilled so recorded a decent heart rate for her of 52bpm. This gave us a grade 4 pass. Hoorah!

Akzent (Ace) was chilled and took it all in his stride and recorded a heart rate of 48bpm giving them a grade 2 pass. Fabulous.

Courageous Clour hadn’t ‘turned off’ by the time we went to see the vet and so recorded a heart rate of 62bpm giving them a pass but no grading. Bless him, he was so excited by it all.

Babe did a sterling job by keeping up with Dynamo Sasha recording a heart rate of bpm. Sadly though she ran up slightly lame (it was a bit slippery in places) and therefore wasn’t graded.

Everyone had a fantastic ride in spectacular countryside and on the most beautiful day we could of asked for considering the rain on the Saturday and the Monday.

Thank you to Elaine who drove three of us in one horse box and Sue who baked a cake for us all for our ‘munchies’ after all of the horses were settled. Thank you also to our two Crew on the day Paul Neal and Pat (Sue’s friend).

We can’t wait for the next one (nor can Sasha!).

Natalie Neal

I trotted in and eyed up the situation, it was amazing as they said my name, Sam’s name and which riding club I was from, then the bell went. It was extremely tense and silent (I don’t like silence!!) I put my hand down and then there was no turning back, the music started and all the tension went until I halted and then it came back!! I saluted to both judges and then performed the best test I could have hoped for. Sam behaved himself so well and did everything I asked him. I got behind my music but I think only Mum noticed!! Sam was amazing because he even struck of on the right lead when he was still at the end of the diagonal!! We scored an amazing 68% which I was extremely pleased with.

Then Mum took Sam and Abbey and I went to watch the rest of the class. Mum then left Sam with Dad and joined us for nail biting! Thankfully Abbey just about managed to keep us calm! There were ten in the class, we sat in the massive gallery, the tension was too much to handle and every time a score was called out Mum and I grabbed each other’s arms! We were 8th at worst, 7th at worst, 6th at worst, 5th at worst, 4th at worst, 3rd at worst, 2nd at worst and then we convinced ourselves that we had heard the score wrong and it was really 58%! Then the placing’s were finally read out after what felt like an hour!! "1st MORGAN-BETH CROCKFORD RIDING ARTHEN MELLTEN" which was amazing and greeted by some jumping up and down and a smile from ear to ear!!

After half an hour we were called in for the mounted presentation. Sam and I stood in the tunnel which linked the three indoor arena’s and the international sized arena, as I waited second and third joined me they were both riding big greys!! We ended up in height order, us being the smallest! We got called in and I could see Mum, Dad and Abbey in front of me and they were all smiling from ear to ear, I walked into the middle of the arena and looked at them again to see Mum in floods of tears and Dad videoing, the chairman of the British Riding Clubs presented me with my sash which is yellow and blue with gold writing, a big red rosette and a silver salver!! I still couldn’t believe I had won and the lap of honour was amazing. We cantered round the edge of the arena twice to music which was amazing and so much fun!

I would also like to say a massive well done to Abbey riding Pagans Dancer who also did extremely well. And also thank her for her support on the day, she almost controlled Mum! Thanks lots also to Fiona and Russell without whom I wouldn’t have a D2M Championship winning test!

Thank you so much West Oxon for sending me as I had a great time in an amazing place, and everyone we meet was really friendly and helpful.

Defiantly recommend Bury Farm to everyone!!'

As a parting thought I, and the rest of the team/club, want to thank Yvonne Lay again for volunteering at the event. Without someone giving up their time to help out we would not have been able to compete. So huge thanks to you Yvonne!

Alex Nadin

Although I was not on duty to see the silver medal awarded to the GB eventing team, I returned for the start of the jumping and then worked every day until the final medal for the women’s modern pentathlon was awarded.

The atmosphere of excitement seemed to grow everyday in Greenwich. You knew when a GB rider had finished their show jumping round or dressage test by the sound of thunder (23, 000 people stamping their feet) and the screams of applause... before long we had Mexican waves that went around and around the stands until Mike Tucker, on site commentator, had to intervene! The emotion in the venue by the time we got to Charlotte Du Jardin's freestyle dressage to music was tangible and I don't believe there was a dry eye in the house when we heard 'Land of Hope and Glory' and the chimes of Big Ben – a triumph for British Dressage and waterproof mascara! In many ways it was a relief to move onto the modern pentathlon - I doubt my heart could take anymore equestrian events and I was well and truly out of tissues!

Would I volunteer again? Apologies for the pun but… wild horses wouldn’t stop me! What an experience; I witnessed history in the making, made some great new friends and have been overwhelmed by the public’s support and gratitude to all the Games Makers. I am down as a reserve for the Paralympics, will be at Blenheim Horse Trials again this year and plan to spend the next four years learning some Portuguese… Roll on Rio 2016!

Alex Nadin