Equestrian.org.au - Full StoryPosted by Jessica Aistrope on 06/02/2017
Endurance rider Jessica Aistrope shares her eventful journey across the Tasman to gain her FEI 1* qualification. Along the way she enjoys a feast of cocktails and chicken wings in order to make the New Zealand minimum riding weight and wracks up an exorbitant data roaming bill by accident….this is her story as she tells it.
"Late last year Stella Harbison and I began discussing our plans for 2017.
The Tom Quilty is a major priority for me and I am the course designer and have ambitions to ride also. Stella has some amazing horses and we thought we should also try to aim for some FEI events as well as the Tom Quilty. Given my lack of participation in FEI over the years, not by choice but simply limited events to attend. I realised I had not competed in FEI since I rode as a youth in 2010. Figuring I would need to start my qualification again I began thinking of the horses Stella had for me to ride, realising we had 2 horses whom had already gained their 1* qualifications, it would be almost a waste to drive 1800+km return trip for a 1*. Stella suggested we start looking for other alternatives.
Upon checking the FEI calendar I noticed NZ had a number of events scheduled before our first FEI ride in Aus. I messaged a friend Mark Tylee in NZ and explained my situation and if he could keep an eye out for a spare horse if ever the opportunity arose.
Surprisingly Mark got almost straight back to me with information that there was an event in a month’s time and a generous lady named Ashley Cole said I could ride one of her horses. It suddenly became a possibility and after speaking with Ashley, Stella and I had our tickets booked and we were heading to New Zealand!...
Read more here:
http://www.equestrian.org.au/news/journal-endurance-rider-first-time-competing-new-zealand
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