I had a bit of time before I had to get in the parcours. I hated it. Waiting was the most horrible part in competitions. All you could do was becoming more and more nervous. And today I was more nervous than ever. So when the judges finally called me in I was very grateful about that. Jennifer wished me the best of luck and then I was ready to go in. Lady quickly recognized that this wasn't a normal training session but a serious competition. She knew that and so did I. We both knew that we had to show our best performance.

When I rode Lady to the first jump, I was very nervous. I really had to hold her back because she had so much energy. I feared that I'd loose control. But when we flew over the first jump all of that nervousity dissappeared. It was like the clocks had stopped ticking.

Only Lady, me and the parcours. I had the full control over her and myself. We worked together better than ever. She was in perfect condition today and so was I.

We took the next two jumps like they weren't there. After a narrow curve a giant jump appeared in front of us. I really had to slow Lady down because we were way too quick. The distance to the jump wasn't perfect but Lady saved us by jumping high and far.

The next jumps were no problem for us. We almost flew over the parcours. It was magical. Lady and I connected very easily to each other. I had to do an narrow turning and after a few meters there was suddenly a very high jump. I didn't see it coming and hesistated. Suddenly I saw a picture in my head of my former friend say that I wouldn't make it anyways. For a moment I was distracted and did nothing. I actually believed what she had said. The distance didn't fit at all. We were way too close to the jump. I felt Lady jump. I panicked because we would probably land right in it. But we didn't. Lady screwed herself in the air like a helicopter and we landed savely on the other side of that jump. It was magic. We could've made so many mistakes but we didn't. I felt like being in a fairytale. But sadly, I had to return to the reality by jumping over the last jump which had caused a lot of faults to other equestrians. It was the most difficult jump of all and this time we didn't struggle at all. Our ride ended faultless and we finished the parcours in a quick time.

Jenny was really happy about my ride. "Did you feel your connection?" she asked excitedly. I nodded with a big smile on my face. I was so happy! It was like overcoming a big hurdle. The big hurdle that had been in my life since this bad accident. First I was happy that I survived the parcours and second I was really excited about how well we had been. The judges actually gave us a rating of 7,9 which was amazing. I seemed like nobody besides Lady and me had noticed our little struggles.

Because I had started at the beginning of the competition I could walk next to the warming-up arena with Lady. Now I was finally able to breath normally, to relax. The parcours was very strenuous and I was happy to have finished it.