Report by Flt Sgt Allen on his first few months on the RAFEA Team

What a fantastic sport Show Jumping is! Why do I say this, well I've recently come back from competing at the Royal Tournament at Melton with the RAF Show Jumping team and boy was it good! As a new member, and with many established regulars, my horse, Falconwood Dollar, and I need to do well at the shows to maintain our place for the coming year. It's starting to come together well for both of us and I feel a lot of that is due to going to these bigger shows and training sessions.

This all started at the Defence Animal Centre (DAC), in Melton Mowbry, with a selection weekend in Feb to be considered for Team Selection. I found this tougher than I expected with different things being asked of the partnership. Once selected there was a further competition at Aldershot in order for our Chef D’Equipe to see us under a bit of pressure. This enables her to select 10 suitable combinations to go forward for Royal Windsor training. It was decided for us what classes we needed to go in and I ended up doing out first ever 1.10m (Newcomers BSJA). Although we had jumped decent size single fences at home this was a big question for us both. With just four faults, we made a good enough impression and were put forward to the training session. This took place at RAF Cranwell and I had the pleasure of being taught by Di Lampard, one of the top BSJA instructors in the country. Di is a true professional and knew her stuff. She wouldn't except anything less than perfection! After a few days of training, and a few tellings off too, she had changed my outlook on show jumping immensely and most importantly got our partnership going better and better. I pass my thanks to Di. The work paid off and the round at Windsor was a pleasure to ride. With only 2 fences down it was not a bad performance in such a massive arena.

Windsor itself was a massive experience for me with the team as we managed to get through to the final 12 teams, the only RAF Team to do so. I was not picked to ride the jump off as SAC Mel Stoner had only one fence down in the first round. However, it did mean I got to ride in the presentation in front of Her Majesty, The Queen which was an honour in itself. A moment I think I will have with me for a long time!

I'm a SAR Winchman by day and I'm always getting injured but after a previous accident at work, rib injury, started giving me grief so I had to sit the next Team competition (Sandhurst) out. Doctors orders! So the next event for me was the Royal Tournament. All the journeys are long for us being based at RAF Valley, but this was a fairly quick one in comparison, just 5 hours! After arriving for 3 days of show jumping and setting Dollars stable up we had a quick wander round the showground. I showed her the arena and as always she wasn't interested in all the flowers or bright show jumps, she was just looking for grass to eat! The show went well and she was amazing for the three days, she had been going well at home and I didn't think it would change now. All the warm ups were spot on and we managed a clear for the team competition (1.05m) which meant we got an overall 3rd and another clear the 1.10m, one of only a hand full in a class of over 70 riders, an achievement I am very proud of.

So how cool is this? Competing at Royal Windsor and the Royal Tournament and being taught by Di Lampard! Me, I love it! But most importantly, so does my horse!! I can't thank the RAF Equitation Association and the RAF Sports Board enough for giving me these opportunities…. I only hope I can compete further and achieve so much more.