Hi, my name is Jessie Leach. I am 13 years old and I am aiming to be one of the UK’s Youth World Cup Team’s reserves for when they go to Canada in 2008.

On April 28th we had a 14 and under clinic. Being me, I was extremely nervous but that soon went away when we got on with showmanship. Many thanks to Francesca and Doug who let me use their horse, Alicante. Our clinician was Alison James with Mom (Christy Leach) and Francesca and Doug Allen all helping Alison.

Showmanship was divided into two groups with mom, Doug and Francesca helping the 8 and unders and Alison helping my group. We worked on all of the showmanship manoeuvres.

After having an hours break for lunch we had a couple hours of horsemanship. Again, we were divided into two groups with Alison helping one group and Francesca helping the group I was in.

Alison had made a pattern so in our group we worked on the different aspects of the pattern. In our group we worked on figures of eight and straight lines and all the other stuff that sounded easy but suddenly became one of the most difficult things in the world!!

We then did our pattern which involved all of our impossible things we worked on. After that the ice cream van made a sudden appearance so all of our clinicians, us and the horses had a well deserved break.

On the 29th, we had our assessment clinic. By this time I was even more nervous than the day before. I was going to ride a horse I had never ridden before! Many thanks to Jadie Collins for letting me ride her horse Lena. Again, everybody was really nice so my nerves rapidly disappeared!

Again, we started with showmanship, this time getting straight on with a pattern. After all of us completed our pattern we divided into our groups again. With Alison helping our group, Francesca helping the 8 an unders, and mom helping the other group. In our group, we worked on more manoeuvres in more depth.

Towards the end of the showmanship our group and the eight year olds had a mini competition! Although you’ll never guess the outcome…The eight year olds won!!! Plus there was only 3 of them and 5 of us! But you all don’t need to hear that story in too much depth!

Moving hastily on…. we had an hour lunch then horsemanship. We were placed in our groups, Francesca with the 8 year olds, Alison with us and mom with the others.

After sharpening up our horsemanship we did a pattern then went on the rail. Right after that our ice cream man returned so that was a great end to the clinic.

So now all of our clinics are done, and all of them were loads of fun!!! Now I just hope I achieve my goal of becoming a reserve.