Lauren will be writing a regular diary column as she competes through her first full season in the UK
Introduction
 |
My name is Lauren Shannon, I am seventeen years old, and up
until last month I was living in Park City, Utah. I am here in the U.K. now
because I am a British citizen and want to event. Unfortunately, in the States eventing consists mostly of dry, barren landscapes with red and white flags scattered around. The level of competition in the mid-western states is best described as lacking. Plus, being a British citizen made me easy game for secretaries with full events: I was often left out because other junior riders for the US needed qualifying rounds. There are not nearly enough three-day events (let alone one-days!) to give me the necessary experience to make a career out of riding. Because that is really what I am doing here, trying to gain experience so that eventually I can make a living doing what I love.
|
That said, I didn't just turn up at Heathrow with a jump vest and jodhpurs and proclaim myself an eventer! Mark and Tanya Kyle have been making trips to the United States to teach clinics for the last four years, and it is through them that I was able to make 'the move'. With their help as trainers, I was able to find a horse in the spring of 2003 to compete. Quixotic, or 'Delphi', is a 15.3 hand, brown, Thoroughbred mare who had done a steady season of novice events and was eight at the time. I wasted no time and came to the U.K. during every possible school holiday. I didn't take long weekends, I took weeks off completely. I loved it and my teachers hated it. By the end of my first summer, I had competed successfully at Novice and completed my first ever three-day event at Blair, in Scotland.
The next spring, I began looking for a second horse to compete alongside Delphi, with a long term aim of Young Riders, thinking Juniors would be too soon. Mark and Tanya found Zero Flight, 'Louie', for me, and so by the summer of 2004, I had my little brown mare and my big bay gelding. Needless to say, I had a full summer. I started out the year completing my first two star at Burgie and would have been third had I not thoroughly embarrassed myself by falling off over a corner cross-country. In Tanya's words, 'It’s all a learning curve'. I then competed Louie in his first one-star at Blair (We seem to favour the Scottish events!) and he did fabulously, finishing 12th. I popped back to school in the States for three weeks before coming back to take Delphi to Weston for the National Under-21's two-star. She and I ended the season respectfully, finishing 6th.
I was quite surprised when Tanya called me at home this winter talking about long lists and 'team training' and such. I was shocked to find my name on the Junior long list! It was lucky that I had decided to finish high school early by graduating this January (I plan on attending Loughborough University this fall, but should be able to mold school around my riding. This will actually be my first full competition season eventing).
I had also applied for the World Class Start programme to 'see what happened' and was surprised to find that I had also made it to the selection trials held on January 17th. So here is what I did: I finished school on the 14th, left Utah on the 15th, arrived here mid-day on the 16th, and rode for the selectors on the 17th! It was quite a whirlwind, and I think I am getting good at dealing with the jet-lag.
As of now, I have plans to compete full seasons on both of my horses and go to team training for the Juniors. If nothing else this year, I know I can expect some very important lessons. I know I will be surprised by the amount of time and effort involved with making eventing my “life”. Apprehensive would be an understatement right now, but then again, so would excitement.