The Area 14 Winter Dressage Qualifier took place at Broads E.C. on Sunday 2nd December. Originally the event was to have taken place over the Saturday and Sunday. However due to lower than expected entries both Junior and Senior qualifiers took place on the Sunday.
JUNIOR DRESSAGE REPORT – by Helen Sida-Page
As we build our junior team up again an intrepid new foursome turned out on a very icy morning on 2nd December to represent us in the Hartpury qualifier. We got off to a super start with Amy Olive Squire winning the Prelim on Rosemary Rushmere’s ‘Willoway Calvados’. They were supported by Laura Leggett on faithful club ‘member’ ‘Horse Heaven Rambo’, owned by Julie Frost, who finished in fourth place.
The Novices included the new combination of Lydia Sida-Page on Serena Plenderleith’s ‘Harebell’. They had a bit of a tricky time but finished fifth. Remy Farrant had one of those days when ‘Sporting Luck’ decided he didn’t want to go to the party. After battling for a hour he finally loaded to arrive with 20mins to go. He redeemed himself by performing a lovely test to finish second in the qualifier. This brought us to within one point of Finn Valley who won.
Thank you to all the faithful owners who loaned ponies and to Remy for her perseverance and a special mention to her dad for the loan of his truck!
Also thanks to Julie Frost (early shift) and Helen Sida-Page who stood in as team managers. The date change meant ournew Junior team manager Helen Regan was unable to be there.
SENIOR DRESSAGE REPORT – by Corinne Bullock
The Seniors were represented by two teams, one in the Qualifier and one in the Area only competition.
There were nine teams in the Senior Qualifier.
Our Qualifier team consisted of Sadie Smith (Highpoint McCauley), Alison Reypert (Diomani), Alison Rushmer (Maggie May) and Julie Frost (Horse Heaven Rambo)
Sadie and ‘Mac’ were brilliant performing the Novice test and finishing with 66.25% which secured them fifth place individually. Alison was the other Novice rider. Alison was unfortunate to have a very ‘forward’ photographer and a passing train at a crucial moment and ‘Diomani’ reacted to them. Despite this they finished with a very respectable 63.33%.
Alison and ‘Maggie’ are a relatively new combination with ‘Maggie’ more frequently seen flying round a cross country track than in a dressage arena. But they make a stylish combination and produced an excellent Prelim test with a score of 68.33% and fourth individually. Julie Frost popped on board ‘Rambo’ who had already performed in the Junior qualifier and finished with 65.83%. The team finished on a score of 15 points just one point behind Halesworth & District 2.
The Area team ran as a team of three when one member, Gillian Feury, was unable to get out of her yard due to the icy conditions.
However the other three did very well. Susannah Close (Prince Albert) rode the Prelim test and finished on a score of 57.08% ‘Albie’ found the new venue very intimidating but Susannah coped well. Lucy Frost (Polly Whisper) had an eventful test with ‘Polly’ doing an unrequested flying change and kicking out the boards when given a little encouragement with the spur during their Novice test. They finished on a score of 58.75%. The third and final rider was Alan Westgate (Wallis). As always ‘Wallis’ was immaculately turned out (Well done Jo!) and performed a lovely test scoring 64.58%
Well done to everyone, you were a credit to the club.
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