“We had a very busy week last week as our season is starting to come to a climax. On Tuesday 26, we took Bracks (Headmore Boadicia) to Kingston Maurward for two of her regionals. I was pleased with my times as I was expecting an early start but luckily that was not the case, we didn’t have to leave until 10! We arrived with plenty of time, despite a bit of traffic on the way, and by the time Bracks was ready to go, she looked beautiful! She warmed up fairly well for the elementary test and I was pleased with the test, the trot work was stunning but there were just a few little mistakes in the canter work. We finished with a score of 68%, which was only good enough in the end for eleventh place, but I was disappointed as there was such a variation in our marks, one judge had us in third, one judge had us in fourth and the third judge had us in 18^th, which dropped us right down the placings and stopped us from qualifying, which was very frustrating as the test should have got us to the Nationals.

A better warm up

I then brought her back out for her second test, in the medium. She warmed up better this time and was more with me in the test, there were a couple of little mistakes where she was a bit over exuberant but all in all I was pleased with it and confident that we should have qualified for the nationals. However, I had a very similar scenario to in the elementary, two judges had us in qualifying positions and one dropped us down so we finished on a score of 67.5% which was good enough for eighth, but not good enough to qualify. It was definitely a very frustrating day at the regionals and we now have to hope for a wildcard and keep our fingers crossed for her advanced medium regional in a couple of weeks time, which we couldn’t do at Kingston Maurward as I had to be at Hickstead on the Wednesday with the boys.

A trip to Hickstead

We left for Hickstead with Wiz (Wurlizer) and Del (Headmore Delegate) on Wednesday at lunchtime in order to be there for the trot up. We had had a scare with Del as he had had a sore back but luckily Jenny Hadland, my equine physio and one of my sponsors, had been out on the Monday to try and sort him out for me! Both boys passed the trot up fine and they were both competing it the small tour as the class that Wiz was supposed to be doing, the under 25 Grand Prix, had been cancelled.

A moment of glory

Del was on first in the PSG on Thursday and he went as well as we could have hoped considering everything. It was a better test than he had done at Hartpury but it was under powered due to the less than perfect preparation we had had.  However it scored well, with four of the five judges scoring us over 66%, and we finished overall on 65.5%, so we were pleased. Between my tests I did a video interview for H&C TV, which was quite daunting but I did manage to survive it, and, surprisingly, I didn’t find it too bad! It was then Wiz’s turn in the PSG and we just wanted him to have an easy ride round and take the pressure off having done Grand Prix all year. I was pleased with the test and I actually thought it was a better test than Del had done, but he only scored 64.3%, so I was obviously wrong(!) but he enjoyed himself nonetheless.

On Friday, Wiz did the Inter I in the morning. His way of going was better than in the PSG but we had quite a few costly mistakes, which meant that we had a similar score to the PSG. However, I think that it did him good to have the pressure taken off after a strong season at Grand Prix, but next year we will definitely just concentrate on the Grand Prix’s! Del was in the Inter I freestyle in the evening, and there was quite an audience for it and, as a result, quite an atmosphere by the time we got in there. He felt much better than on the previous day, he was more of his normal self, and I was very pleased with the test and how he coped in the atmosphere. There were a few little mistakes here and there and I wasn’t quite spot on with the music as it was the first time we had done the music in competition. It was still good enough to score 68.25% and finish eighth, so we were over the moon with that!

Amazing Grand Prix

I then spent most of the weekend at Hickstead watching the 5* Grand Prix as there were some phenomenal combinations in it. It was fantastic to watch dressage of that quality in this country and our British team could certainly challenge for the gold medal at the European in a couple of weeks time! It was an absolute pleasure to watch Carl Hester’s Grand Prix and Adelinde Cornelisson’s Kur, and watching Charlotte Dujardin compete at Grand Prix in the flesh for the first time was amazing as I train with her some of the time and it was just awesome to see her doing so well.”