Photos and words by Morgan Duell

Entry banner at the entrance to Werribee Park

The first positive surprise was driving into the ground to see Tayla Desmet and my own face smiling at us from the entry banner to the competition! I have been coming these grounds for most of my life, and never did I think I would see myself on one of the competitions banners; such a strange but proud feeling to have.

On the cover of the program

The first day of competition I had the Prix St George test, which honestly I was a little (more like very) annoyed at myself for having a couple of mistakes in the lines of changes. I was really happy with the rest of the test, and we did have some solid work that brought our marks up to win the class, but I was just so annoyed about those damn changes!

I think one of the hardest things about being a competitive rider is that whilst you obviously want to do well and hopefully win the class, you still want to ride as best you can and win with a solid test.
For me, one of the worst feelings is waiting for the score to come up knowing you didn’t have a clean test so you sit and think about your test and hope that you had enough good work to pull you through to a good score.

Thankfully I was able to redeem myself the next day for the Inter 1 where we only had one teeny mishap in the 2’s where Flo lost a little bit of his balance over the centre line, but I was still pretty happy with the test after my final halt. We won this class with a much better feeling about the test, which is always good for your confidence when the competition isn’t over yet.

I have anxiety, so I have to do a little bit of work to get my head into a good zone so it just makes it a lot easier if in the back of my mind I know that I’ve just ridden a good test because it gives me a bit of extra reassurance when I go into the next test. Before every test, I listen to music while I get ready and i start my warm up with my iPod tucked into my breeches with a playlist running. I have 3 playlists depending on how I’m feeling, if i need to get pumped up, calm down or to just keep my nerves in check and make sure they stay on the functional side.

The last day of competition was the Freestyle which is absolutely hands down my favourite part of the competition! I make my own test and music which makes it a lot easier to know my freestyle inside out.
I was really happy with how this test turned out, and we finished the competition in first place and in turn made a clean sweep for the 2016 22-25 Small Tour Championship!

To top it off, this year I was also fortunate enough to win the Deb Hamid and Kevin Hitchens award which is for the rider with the highest combined percentage across all the FEI competitions. It is a stunning piece of hand crafted jewellery that I will keep and treasure forever.

All things going to plan this was my last competition at Small Tour level now we have the winter to step up to the Medium Tour, so I’m very happy that I was able to finish small tour on such a high.

As always the young rider competition was such an enjoyable and well run event, many thankyous to the organisers and sponsors!