“Beyond your dreams, but within your reach”- By Ally Hibbert
“Beyond your dreams, but within your reach”- By Ally Hibbert
“Beyond your dreams, but within your reach”- By Ally Hibbert
The moment they announce your name on the loudspeaker, the minute your heart either races a million miles an hour, or sinks. That particular moment. This is exactly what Rebekah’s heart did when she found out she had won the Show-Hunter series at Northgate Lodge in Ruakaka, Northland.
Rebekah is a 17 year old horse loving equestrian, in her team she has a few horses within her family but her main boy is Goss Green Masquerade or his paddock name ‘Sam’ is a 16hh 8 year old Warmblood cross Thoroughbred,
which she recently won the Show-Hunter series on, on Sunday 9th August 2020. Rebekah and Sam have come leaps and bounds, within their riding journey. It’s been wicked to watch from behind a screen until I finally had the guts to say hello and introduce myself, since then she’s always been a friendly face at an event, and Sam’s always happy for a scratch!
What was going through your head when you had found out that you had won the Show Hunter Series?
– I was in absolute disbelief as I did think I had done anywhere as near as good as I had, considering the amount of falls I had but I was beyond proud of Sam and I that we had pushed through the small issues we encountered and had done a lot better than we expected.
One piece of advice you’ve been told that’s stuck with you and why?
– SIT UP AND WAIT, that has been a big piece of advice that has stuck with me because I would always get too far forward and over balance Sam and if he stopped I would go straight over his head.
Favourite moment you’ve had within your riding journey?
– Personally I’ve had so many ups and downs but my most recent favourite memory would be winning the Northgate Show Hunter Series with Sam and the amount of ups and downs we’ve had together.
This is sometimes what you don’t see, how much self doubt someone can inflict on themselves, it’s more common than you think within the equestrian community, with people telling themselves that their last round wasn’t good and it could’ve been better, if you have doubts going into the ring then you’ll carry the doubts in and out of the ring, can resulting in dropping a rail.
I once got told a very helpful and insightful piece of advice from Amanda Wilson, during a talk in the Youth Camp last year at Equidays 2019. She was preparing herself for an Olympic Level Showjumping round, and she passed a friend while riding into the ring and he asked her ‘What do you want out of this ring’ and she replied ‘I would be happy with a couple rails down’ as much hope as she had she would’ve been happy with getting 4 or more faults, and he said ‘No, you will go into the ring and jump clear, don’t be happy and tell yourself with a few rails down will be okay, because you will drop a few rails, tell yourself good things and the chance of those happening will be greater’ and then she went on to win that class
I believe. So you see no matter how good of a rider you are, how high the class you’re competing in is, you can’t allow yourself to have doubts, if you do then you’ll most likely follow that doubt through.
Aim for greatness, and you shall achieve greatness!!!
I hope you enjoyed my article and next time you’re in that show ring, going on a hack, doing anything in that fact. That you have hope that you CAN win that class, no matter the discipline or day. Thanks for reading 🙂
Here’s some photos of Rebekah on her lovely big boy Sam!
