Sep 15, 2026 · 32 min · 10 segments
On this week's chatty episode, Liz shares how she got on at the ***British Dressage*** LeMieux ***National*** Dressage Championships, and why not moving the goal posts left her beaming and not…
Lou GillingsHostWell, we spoke about it last, we touched on it, didn't we, last week on the podcast, that my goal was to go and enjoy the experience, to do the best that I could, to do essentially a clear round, even though it's not jumping, but you know, a mistake-free test.
But I'd actively said to those people that had asked that middle of the pack, like, I would be absolutely thrilled with, because I went on a wild card, so I was in the Elementary Silver with Liz Somerville's Splash, and I'd d- I'd gone on a wild card, so even though the wild card system is, is brilliant, you still go in having not directly qualified, and there's so many amazing, amazing combinations, like, that I know of in the north of England and Scotland, never mind all the brilliant people, you know, further south.
And those that have listened to podcasts before know that my first experience of the Pet Plan National Championships when it was at Hartpury was not one filled with joy.
Changed a little bit what I was doing at the end of the warmup, tried to ask her for too much, and then she just got too hot.
Um, it was when I had Chianti, and then I couldn't ride the hotness, and I was really disappointed because it was such a long way, you know, and it does take, for people to go to things like this, it, it really does take an army.
You know, there's so many people behind the scenes that put all the pieces together to enable you to go and compete somewhere like, like that.
Traveled down on the Wednesday, 'cause that's when we were allowed to, um, to travel, which was great, and met Nikki, Nikki Baxter, um, from Baxter Equine Services there.
She was also traveling solo, so it was really nice 'cause I'd got a friend, even though, like, I knew lots of people, it was, it was lovely.
And we went and did the arena walk and went for a little hack, and we did a little bit of warmup, and it was the first time that I'd ridden with Gold riders who were on, on the Thursday in the same arena, but in a much higher level class.
And it was like, in the warmup, you know how I talk about white boot syndrome? It was like, oh, my gosh, these ponies are just like, wow, they're amazing.
So I basically just trotted a few circles, cantered a few circles, and then I was like, do you know, he didn't need much 'cause he'd traveled from Scotland anyway.
And then- Yeah, and then it's really funny because, so I'd spoke about not moving the goalposts before.
We had this really good download, which I keep referring to, about how you should set your goals before, before an event whilst you, you know, you, it's not so emotive, and those were my goals.
And it's really easy when you get to a competition to move the goalposts or to be disappointed with your performance or thinking, "Oh, God, I wish I'd done this, wish I'd done that." Anyway, I wake up in the middle of the night absolutely freezing cold because I'd been, I was staying in the back of my little three and a half, uh, ton lorry, which was absolutely fab, on a camp bed, and we'd had such a nice evening, and it had got quite warm inside, so I, I was really silly, went to bed not with a million layers on because it was so warm still when I went to bed.
Well, we spoke about it last, we touched on it, didn't we, last week on the podcast, that my goal was to go and enjoy the experience, to do the best that I could, to do essentially a clear round, even though it's not jumping, but you know, a mistake-free test.
But I'd actively said to those people that had asked that middle of the pack, like, I would be absolutely thrilled with, because I went on a wild card, so I was in the Elementary Silver with Liz Somerville's Splash, and I'd d- I'd gone on a wild card, so even though the wild card system is, is brilliant, you still go in having not directly qualified, and there's so many amazing, amazing combinations, like, that I know of in the north of England and Scotland, never mind all the brilliant people, you know, further south.
And those that have listened to podcasts before know that my first experience of the Pet Plan National Championships when it was at Hartpury was not one filled with joy.
Changed a little bit what I was doing at the end of the warmup, tried to ask her for too much, and then she just got too hot.
Um, it was when I had Chianti, and then I couldn't ride the hotness, and I was really disappointed because it was such a long way, you know, and it does take, for people to go to things like this, it, it really does take an army.
You know, there's so many people behind the scenes that put all the pieces together to enable you to go and compete somewhere like, like that.
Traveled down on the Wednesday, 'cause that's when we were allowed to, um, to travel, which was great, and met Nikki, Nikki Baxter, um, from Baxter Equine Services there.
She was also traveling solo, so it was really nice 'cause I'd got a friend, even though, like, I knew lots of people, it was, it was lovely.
And we went and did the arena walk and went for a little hack, and we did a little bit of warmup, and it was the first time that I'd ridden with Gold riders who were on, on the Thursday in the same arena, but in a much higher level class.
And it was like, in the warmup, you know how I talk about white boot syndrome? It was like, oh, my gosh, these ponies are just like, wow, they're amazing.
So I basically just trotted a few circles, cantered a few circles, and then I was like, do you know, he didn't need much 'cause he'd traveled from Scotland anyway.
And then- Yeah, and then it's really funny because, so I'd spoke about not moving the goalposts before.
We had this really good download, which I keep referring to, about how you should set your goals before, before an event whilst you, you know, you, it's not so emotive, and those were my goals.
And it's really easy when you get to a competition to move the goalposts or to be disappointed with your performance or thinking, "Oh, God, I wish I'd done this, wish I'd done that." Anyway, I wake up in the middle of the night absolutely freezing cold because I'd been, I was staying in the back of my little three and a half, uh, ton lorry, which was absolutely fab, on a camp bed, and we'd had such a nice evening, and it had got quite warm inside, so I, I was really silly, went to bed not with a million layers on because it was so warm still when I went to bed.
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