I had hoped that our final blog would have been written in haze of excitement and glory, but unfortunately it was not our year.
After a lovely dressage test, and just two down in the Show jumping we headed to the cross country full of confidence. After a long wait in the warm up Todd and Abi set off 'guns ablazing'
But it soon went wrong with a definite No from Todd at fence 2, my heart sunk - Abi held her head and quickly turned to pop him over 2nd time. He then headed of to the first of the combinations, a step down to a related distance on the turn and out over a skinny hedge - this he was foot perfect.
They then carried on over the wall and table to the coffin, where Todd put In another couple of stops, Abi got him over but with the 4th stop at the next fence, it was game over for Team Todd.
It was a long walk home for them both - and such a disappointment for them, that horrible feeling of letting everyone down - the full fan club had made their way to Gloucestershire to cheer them on. It is so lovely to have such wonderful and loyal friends - but when it all goes wrong we feel such guilt that we hadn't better. However, all were happy to either celebrate or commiserate and it was done in fine style as we cracked open the champagne anyway!
We had at least got there on our funny 'leg at each corner' family pony!!
Over the past 48 hours we have all soul searched and tried to fathom what went wrong - my view was that although at the time I could have willingly sent Todd to ' boot camp' on reflection I'm not sure - looking back I don't think Todds heart was in it. Part of Todds success was that he is a horse that throws his heart over the fence and follows - in the absence of his heart he had nothing to follow. I'm not sure where it has gone but I do feel we can help him find it again - he is our family pony and we love him - he has given us such a huge amount of pleasure and fun over the last 9 or so years - more than we ever imagined. He and Abi will have a break now to contemplate what the future holds and where we go from here. I am now on a pony hunt as Eleanor is determined that she will be the next in the family to be Badminton bound!
Thank you for sharing our journey with us - it didn't have the fairy tale ending we were all hoping for, but apart from some bruised pride they are both in one piece - and hey that's horses for you!
If we do return to Badminton - either Abi or Eleanor, I will let you know!
