“Well, what a week I’ve had! With it being the week of the Nationals the yard was in full swing getting everything packed and ready to travel, but before I could think about that, I had my first magazine article to sort out. Your Horse magazine were here last Tuesday taking photos while I talked them through the movements and explained what I was doing. I rode a couple of horses for the demonstration, the first one was Dante (Headmore Downtopia) and the other was Kelly (Celtic Rose III), a 17 year old Connemara/ TB grey mare who I used to compete up to advanced medium, who is owned by one of our longest standing clients and supporters, Caroline Dibden.

Weather gods

It didn’t start well as the sky looked ominous... it was very cloudy and it looked like we were definitely going to get wet, and we did! The photos had to be done outside due to the light, so we were very much at the mercy of the weather. Dante was amazing considering we had to keep running for cover, but with considerable patience we did eventually manage to get all the photos we needed with him. Thankfully, the weather had perked up by the time I rode Kelly, however it will make it look like the photos were done on two different days!

Three to the Nationals

My attention then turned to the Nationals. We arrived there safe and sound on Wednesday afternoon with all three horses, ready to start competing on Thursday. My first test was the PSG with Wizard (Wurlizer) but, unfortunately, he was not on his best form and, although there were no massive mistakes, he wasn’t with me so it wasn’t up to our usual standard, although we still managed to score 65%, which, for what I considered not a good test at the Nationals, I was quite pleased with, though it did leave me wondering what we would have got if he had gone at his best. 

A mixed result

Friday held Bracken’s (Headmore Boadicia) first test, which was the novice. She went absolutely beautifully and we were really pleased with her. We scored 68% which was good enough for fifth; although it was so close we could have easily been second. I also had Wizard’s Inter I and, although it was a better test than the PSG, it still wasn’t his best, scoring 65.37%.

Olympic sandwiches

On Saturday, the only class I had was Del’s (Headmore Delegate) medium, and I knew we stood a really good chance of winning, although it was a very strong class. Del was awesome and he answered my every question, and we scored 70.49%, and we finished just 0.21% behind Vicky Thompson-Winfield and Toni Terry’s horse Beltoni for second place. This was quite an achievement, as we were sandwiched between two Olympians (Peter Storr was third) and there were many top International riders below us.

By Sunday, we were all feeling very tired, but I still had two tests to ride before we could relax. The first was Bracken’s elementary test and, although there were no major mistakes, she felt very green and there were a few wobbles. However, we still scored 69.31%, putting us in 11th place in a very high scoring class and, even though she just missed out on a placing, we were thrilled as she was one of the youngest horses in the class and the test was far from perfect. She’s definitely one we have high hopes for next year.

My final test was Del’s advanced medium, and, again, he was awesome. He went even better than he had in the medium and we went into the lead after our test with a score of 70.69%, this time fractionally ahead of Beltoni. We hung onto the lead until the very end, when Peter Storr went in and just crept ahead of us, pushing us into second place once again. The top three in the advanced medium were the same as in the medium but just reversed so, again, it was a fantastic result to be sandwiched between two Olympians like that.

So, all in all, it was a very good week and there were a lot of positives to be taken from all three horses.”