Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Firstly I should explain what I am attempting to do and why I'm raising money;

The Wobbleberries challenge is a challenge for wobbly, wimpy riders to compete at a BE80 one day event by autumn 2017, all to raise money for the wonderful Willberry Wonder Pony charity and challenge and push ourselves to compete in the sport that Hannah Francis loved.

The charity aims to support vital research into osteosarcoma and to grant equine related wishes to seriously ill people and their families. 

#inspiredbyHannah flooded social media for very good reason.  Hannah Francis inspired thousands of people she never met and achieved so much in her tragically short life.  Aged just 17 she was diagnosed with an aggressive bone cancer in her pelvis, hip, spine and lungs called Osteosarcoma.

Hannah's story is best read in her own words - please visit her charity's website and become a friend of Willberry.

www.willberrywonderpony.org

So let me introduce the cast;

There's me, Sarah.  I have ridden all of my life but unfortunately there seems to be an exponential decay plot line on my confidence graph that declines against my increasing age.  After a few nasty falls over the past few years my youthful courage started to desert me and this was finished off when I went splat in a showjumping clinic on 13 August 2016 not actually jumping the fence but AFTER the jump..........

The result of this was that I very nearly removed my own arm and I am now bionic with plates and screws rejoining my smashed bones and the muscles sewn back together.  The thought of getting on a horse again worries me a bit and the thought of jumping again frankly terrifies me, because one thing I haven't told you is that I am allergic to morphine and opiates and this kind of injury stings a bit without pain relief!!

The next couple of months will be spent doing regular physio on my arm and I aim to lose 4 stone before I try and complete my challenge.

Then there's Dangerous Brian.  Brian (named after the snail from the Magic Roundabout) is a 17 hands high (those of you who don't know horsey terminology, that's big!), 6 year old dappled grey ex racehorse.  His racing name was Taraakum but I wouldn't bother taking the time to do any research on him because I am pretty sure that Brian was the worst racehorse that ever graced the track. Two quotes that I have found about him;

"Save your money and tell the trainer to find it a good home. That's the worst animal I have ever seen contesting a horse race"

"Would struggle to beat a three-legged donkey with gout"

He wasn't just slow, this horse literally could not gallop.  The video of his race shows something akin to a baby giraffe gallumping across the Serengeti hotly pursued by a hungry lion. 

Brian also has a poor attitude to doing as he is told.  During his time in racing Brian had to be ridden at all times in eye shields (similar to blinkers) in an attempt to get him to concentrate.  He was well known for ditching his rider half way up the gallops by grinding to a sudden halt, rearing, spinning round and then going back home alone.

You my be thinking at this point, does this horse actually have any good qualities and I can confirm that, yes, he does have some positive attributes;

1) Brian is pretty - everyone who sees him wants him (only at first sight)

2) Brian is incredibly athletic, agile and possesses all the attributes to be a great event horse (he just sometimes doesn't want to be a great event horse, he would quite like to be retired).

3) Brian does excellent Elvis impressions

4) Brian does Black Beauty impressions, rearing impressively

4) Brian is great at Fancy Dress (although he was robbed of victory at a fancy dress competition where he went as an elf and wore tights and pointy shoes but was beaten by someone dressed as a present, not that I am still bitter of course....) 

So the challenge will be for me to persuade Brian to complete a one day event which consists of a dressage test (horse dancing), a round of showjumping (a course of coloured jumps that fall down if you get it wrong) and a cross country course (galloping over a few miles of undulating ground over 20 plus solid fences that do not fall down if you hit them!).

Easy, right???

I would really appreciate your support so if you can spare me even a pound then I would really appreciate it and we can raise some money for a wonderful cause.  I promise to provide progress reports of our training as well as photos and video evidence of the actual event!

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.