On 18th February 2018, I am very proud to say that I competed at the North West British

Dressage Regionals held at Myerscough College. It was our first attempt for my new horse Lissycasey Gold (Terry) and I. Whilst we have been slowly growing in confidence as a partnership, at this competition in particular, I got very nervous about other horses getting close in the warm up ( this is something I need to work on because I know that Terry is also just nervous. He doesn’t do anything intentionally dangerous, he just needs me to be a calm and confident leader).

Once we were in that arena I focused on guiding him and leading him. As a result, we had some lovely moments. At times I felt he needed more suppleness and to be more in front of my leg. There is so much more to come from him but it was still one of our better tests.

I am lucky to have made many friends whilst competing in BD. As a group, we recognize how tough our sport is and make the conscious choice to support one another. As tribute to that I would like to share with you my friends experiences of the regionals.

The first of these being a combination I met when attending a BD youth training camp, Rebecca Dawes and her horse Ebony. They were competing in the second section of the prelim class.

Rebecca bought Ebony with the intention to compete her at affiliated dressage, despite starting her ridden life as a show jumper. When Ebony arrived at the yard, she had a few issues which included problems with her hocks, back and stomach.

Rebecca has put in a lot of hard work over the past 18 months to get to this stage and she said to me that “Ebony has challenged me quite frequently and Winter regionals was to be Ebony’s first major competition. She isn’t keen on indoor arenas and we hadn’t traveled such a long distance with her before so I was slightly apprehensive. I was pleased when she handled the whole experience of competing away from home well”

After achieving an amazing score of 67.53%  Rebecca who is just 15 years old said “I am really proud of Ebony, she had worked with me and trusted me, which was nice to see. To be placed 10th in the competition within a strong group was a real confidence boost”

Reflecting on her test she said ‘“In the future I would like to be able to ride a more uphill  and bouncy canter. I am excited to see what the future holds for me and Ebony and I am eager to start working towards Summer Regionals”

Earlier in the week was the Novice class where my friend Hannah Burrage was competing. Hannah is a 30 year old Science Teacher from Shropshire. Her current horse is Westpoint Firebolt (known at home as Harry), a 9 year old British Warmblood by Fulton. She bought him just over 18 months ago for her mum but he has proven himself to be a little “sharp” Having joined BD less than a year ago and Harry only really starting work when we got him, I think it’s fair to say that we were both  late starters!

They have successfully competed in Area Festivals and Summer Regionals so far and during that time Hannah has coped well with his sharp and spooky nature. Hannah, had this to say:

“Since Summer Regionals we have worked on improving our consistency at Novice and finding ways to get Harry to relax which is not always easy – he’s a talented horse but often this gets lost in tension. During this time we also qualified for the Winter Regionals at Novice level. However, preparation for this did not go well! I didn’t manage to get to any competitions during December or January. This was due to bad weather and Harry having to have a 3 week period off work, because of a bad reaction to his Flu and Tetanus vaccination. But, the time came and we set off on our road trip up to Myerscough.

As our time wasn’t until nearly 7pm, I made the decision to do a longer warm up than usual as he was clearly on his toes and this seemed to do the job. As we where’re the arena, I just thought “we can only do our best” and took a second to remind myself that every movement is a new set of marks and therefore not to let any mistakes affect the rest of the test. The test went well, with a couple of little mistakes but overall I was really, really happy with how he held himself together. We finished on 66.18% in 17th place, just 8 marks off the top 10!

Onwards and upwards! We have recently started competing at Elementary with mixed success and are hoping to qualify for Summer Regionals again soon.”

Ellie Foster, another BD under 25’s rider that I have met during the course of my time competing BD. She was riding her 13 year old self produced Irish sports horse Mac in the Elementary class. For Mac and Ellie regionals was not about how high in position that could come. The focus for her was more on the horses way of going and to enter the arena feeling positive. They both enjoyed their first Elementary regionals immensely.

Finally another fellow BD youth member,Bethany Knott competed in the medium at the start of the week. Beth has been juggling her competing with working full time but was very excited to be aiming for the winter regionals for the first time. I have know her and her horse Twiggy for a few years now and I have been around for some of the ups and downs of their journey (including placings at regionals, qualification for the nationals and progressing to the pinnacle of BD youth, the A squad rider test, all on a self produced horse!) The mare has a huge character and can be quite opinionated. That being said, Beth rode an amazing and tactful test to achieve a score of 63.29 and a placing of 22nd in a very hot class. Most importantly for Beth, Twiggy was attentive and softer in the hand than ever.

 

Results:

Medium silver
Sophie Williams and Ella

Medium silver freestyle
Dawn Grundy and Rough Lee So Schufro

Medium gold
Calum Whitworth and Fernando

Medium gold freestyle
Paul Friday and Flamingo

Advanced Medium silver
Sarah Higgins and Davidoff

Advanced Medium silver freestyle
Dawn Grundy and Rough Lee So Schufro

Advanced Medium Gold
Becky Moody and Odwigs Echo

Advanced Medium Gold freestyle
Kate Cowell and Dramatic Conquest

Novice Gold
Anna Brown and Midnight II

Novice Gold freestyle
Martin Schleicher

Prelim silver section 1
Erin Denney and Rafferty I

Prelim silver section 2
Ellis Morton and Ella

FEI PE grade 5 PE5NA
Sara Bates

FEI PE grade 5 PE5IT
Sophie Wells

FEI PE grade 4 PE4NA
Katie Radzik

FEI PE grade 4 PE4IT
Izzy Palmer

FEI PE grade 3 PE3NA
Isabel Slack and Brackenbank Flash Harry

FEI PE grade 3 PE3IT
Jane Lishman and San Quentin QOS

FEI PE grade 3 PE3NA
Denis Smith and Sheepcote Catkin

FEI PE grade 3 PE3IT
Ashleigh Jones and Roemer Van Veenoord

FEI PE grade 4 PE4NA
Sarah Davies and Hundon Lodger

FEI PE grade 4 PE4IT
Izzy Palmer and Touch Down M

FEI PE grade 5 PE5NA
Hope Hayward and Cadeau K

FEI PE grade 5 PE5IT
Sophie Wells and C Fatal Attraction

FEI PE grade 2 PE2NA
Kyrby Brown and Sambuca

FEI PE grade 2 PE2IT
Georgia Wilson and Chico 3

FEI PE grade 1 PE1NA
Rowan Cosby and Kilimazing Tiger Lily

FEI PE grade 1 PE1IT
Sophie Christiansen and Amazing Romance

FEI PE grade 2 PE2NA
Kyrby Brown and Sambuca

FEI PE grade 2 PE12IT
Sir Lee Pearson and Zion

FEI PE grade 1 PE1NA
Rowan Crosby and Kilamazing Tiger Lily

FEI PE grade 1 PE1IT
Julie Payne and Pandora