I was asked by my Endurance Group, Offas Dyke, to give a talk about my time and experience at Perseverance Stud. I was more than happy to do this, so equipped with my laptop and a powerpoint presentation I drove off to Bicknor.
There was a good turn out by all of Offas Dyke which was great to see. Chris Wray gave me a great introduction of "Abbi, whom I'm sure needs no introduction" followed by the high points of my endurance career from Junior to Young Rider and now Senior.
I had roughly just over 30 slides of photos to show and talk about. I introduced the Perseverance Team, talked about every day life, their training method of using the Kikkuli Test, the rides I competed in, how endurance there was different to Britain, and the hazards their horses face such as snake bites. Think I covered practically everything including showing the terrain PSV train over and photos of Samrah and Liberty's feet. Lots to talk about and share and I enjoyed reminiscing about my 6 months.
The photo of me sat on a Kudo from when Lucy, Donalyn, Beyers, Carol and I had to pull the carcass across Tokkie's land got a lot of laughs.
Following me was Lindsay Cotterell a barefoot trimmer from in the area. My touch on barefoot in SA gave a good introduction to her topic. Lindsay also reads the PSV blog and happened to have an article by Laura Seegers with her, so it was excellent to find she had heard of the stud.
I had a few members chat to me after about my time there and it was great to hear how interested they were. I think the phrase used best was by Chris "Sounds like Africa really got under your skin", it most certainly did!! And many asked when I would be back.......as soon as I can afford the flight fees was my reply!
All in all an excellent time spent and I enjoyed sharing my adventure with them all.