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About me: I turn 30 next year (ouch!), I'm a nervous, overweight, under fit, 100% unconfident novice rider. I have ridden for most of my life as a happy hacker, and this is very much where I am comfortable! I have never had a riding lesson with an instructor, my Mum taught me to ride. When I was younger I used to do some showing, I tried it again recently and found I was too nervous to go into the ring. 
I also had a 7 year break from horses and only came back into riding 2 years ago. 
Jumping... well... I can pop a little log in the woods, I tried cross country jumps in a school... it didnt end well, infact I hit the deck pretty hard. I have done a few little cross poles, but as soon as you put something straight infront of me my nerves get the better of me and thats the end of that really. 
Dressage... well, thats a big fat question mark. I've never done it, I've watched it a little on the telly, but thats about it. I dont understand it, I dont understand the terms and phrases, I cant see that either me or my lummax of a horse will ever be elegant enough to be good at it. 

About Dude: Dude is a 17.3hh ex race horse (Santiago Sun is his race name for anyone interested). He retired straight from the track to me in September 2014. Since retiring he has been on a couple of fun rides, done a couple of days hunting and happy hacked. Thats about all, so this is going to be a challange for him too. (we will also need to get over our fear of travelling to complete this challenge, just to add to the mix!)

Dude has only seen a couple of small (60cm) cross country fences, these are the fences that didnt end well for me, so my confidence in him doing this without ditching me again is about 10%. 
Poles... well, we have done a few small plain white poles, he has never seen fillers or planks or even bright colours for that matter. (oh god why am I doing this??) 
Dressage... you know you always get that one horse that spooks at the letters or the planks... that will be Dude. I dont think I need to say anymore about that. 

Why am I doing this?
We all know someone who has battled or is battling cancer and we have all seen the wonderful things the cancer research charities do, so I dont feel like I need to explain why I chose a cancer based charity. 

Dude is a very capable horse. He can do it, but it's me that lets him down. He has given me the confidence to try this (even with our whoopsie), I know he would love it! He loves his jumping, but I dont have the confidence to ride him into it. I would love to look back and say I tried, I really tried, to compete at a BE80 level before I was 30. 

Key Aims:
1) Raise as much money as I can for the Willberry Wonder Pony charity (https://www.willberrywonderpony.org/charity/)
2) Loose weight & get fit
3) Loading and travellilng. Get Dude travelling nicely! 
4) Stressage. Learn it, use it, become one with it!
5) Poles. grid work, raised poles, balance. 
6) show jumps (honestly, I'd be happy to just complete a 50cm course, but I am aiming for the 80cm!) 
7) Cross Country. No doubt there will be at least one painful booboo here!