Hi,

I’m Katie and I’m 16 years old. I compete my 15hh Dun Connemara, Bee, in dressage at prelim competitions, affiliated with British Dressage (BD).

I began riding at the age of 9 after months and months of begging my parents for riding lessons. My weekly lessons were the highlight of my week and I instantly got the “bug”. After a few years of learning to ride, I got my first share pony as my 14th birthday present! In the year I shared him (Bobby), I learnt so much more and he gave me unlimited amounts of confidence and definitely helped shaped me into the rider I am today.

After a year of sharing Bobby, I wanted something that would challenge me more and give me more opportunities. I stumbled across an advert for Bee, little did I know that he would become my pony of a lifetime! After trialling Bee, I instantly fell in love with him and began sharing him immediately. We had a brilliant spring and summer getting to know one another and beginning to progress together. In our first competition together we qualified for the Sunshine Tour at Hickstead. At the end of the summer Bee’s owner made the decision to sell him. I was gutted, I thought I would never see Bee again – but no! We in fact ended up buying him! All my dreams of owning my own horse had come true in that one moment – and even better, it was Bee whom I owned!

That winter we encountered one problem after another with both our riding and Bee’s health. Unfortunately Bee went badly lame and I wasn’t hable to ride for a few months. Later in the Winter we made the decision to move yards and start a fresh.

Bee made great improvements at the new yard (where we are currently), and by the Spring he had completely regained his health and was ready for full work again. My yard is predominantly dressage and that was how I became hooked. I went from always assuming that I wanted to showjump to coming to the realisation that dressage is what I’m most passionate about. I began to mainly work on his flatwork, only jumping from time-to-time, and I was astounded at the results. Slowly but surely, the chubby little lazy pony that I owned began to turn into a muscular horse who knew better how to work correctly.

 

At the end of Spring Bee and I went to our first dressage competition and picked up I second place! I was so proud of him because it was all totally new to him. Over the Summer we began to affiliate and watched as our scores climbed through the 60s. By September we were scoring 67%. At the end of last year Bee and I focused on riding for my school team. As a school we managed to achieve 5th at Felbridge and qualified for the NSEA Plate Champs at Keysoe where we came 5th as a team and Bee and I scored one of our highest scores, despite me forgetting parts of he test!

Bee has had a quiet start to the year but we’ve both joined our local pony club and have been enjoying doing clinics and rallies. My goals for this year with Bee is just to continue improving and to keep on working hard to improve our scores. I’d love to be competing Novice with him by the end of the year.

We have lots of exciting things planned for this year already including Pony Club Camp, BYRDS Camp, NSEA Dressage, Clinics and much more!

Thanks for much for reading, Katie & Bee