Wednesday 11 February 2015

Prize winning corner: IWMT 2014 runner-up receives NLP coaching



Michele Kevill and her horse, Diamond Marley, won the runner up prize in the Cathean Limited Ian White Memorial BE100 Class at Smith's Lawn Horse Trials 2014. The pair finished on their impressive dressage score of 26.0. The prize was a coaching session with Elizabeth Hough from Your Great Mind Coaching. Here is Michele's account of her experiences at Smith's Lawn and working with Elizabeth.

On the day of Smith's Lawn Horse Trials I was more excited than usual as I was travelling down to the event with my great friend and her horse, as well as my mother and our trainer. We all talked and laughed so much on the way down so the journey seemed very quick.

On arrival, my mother went off to collect numbers and we prepared our horses for the dressage.


Michele and Mousse out hunting (photo courtesy of M Kevill)
Diamond Marley (or Mousse as he's known in the stable) behaved appallingly in the warm up and screamed for his travel mate to the point where someone asked if he was a stallion! However, this worked in my favour as usually he switches off in the dressage arena but that day he stormed down the centre line and really showed off and we received our best mark ever! I then walked the show jumping which was up to height, this pleased me as my horse is easier when the fences are bigger. Then we walked the crosscountry course which was lovely with really good going for the time of year. 

I returned to the lorry full of confidence. When it came to the show jumping my horse reverted to his earlier behaviour, adding a few whip rounds and bucks for good measure which very nearly put me on the floor. When it came to doing the business in the ring he completed with a lovely clear followed by a storming crosscountry round. Gosh! I was so pleased with my boy especially as he had been very ill the season before.

I could hardly believe it when I saw the score board, 2nd place was not what I was expecting and I felt really proud. The sponsors were extremely generous; I received so many wonderful useful things but best of all I received a voucher for a session with Elizabeth Hough. 


Photo courtesy of M Kevill
Initially I felt apprehensive as I didn't really know what to expect, but having spoken with Elizabeth on two occasions I was confident that my visit to her would be beneficial. I really enjoyed my session, it was a lot to take in in a very short space of time. As yet I have not been to any competitions to apply what I learnt but I have used it when just riding at home to great effect. I feel a lot more confident in myself and my riding since my session and can't wait for the season to start.

I shall hopefully be back to Smith's Lawn again this year as it is a favourite event, well run, good courses and amazing prizes!


Kathryn is owner and director of Cathean Ltd Writing Services. She is a published medical and equestrian writer with a passion for creating compelling text in collaboration with her clients from pharmaceutical, healthcare and equestrian businesses across the world.