"With most of my horses now qualified, I took Dante (Headmore Downtopia) to Crofton Manor last Saturday to try and complete his qualification. I was also enjoying the glorious sunshine we were having, although changing out of short sleeves and shorts into breeches and long boots was not pleasant.

He was much more confident than when I had taken him to Merrist Wood, and, although he was a little tight in his neck, he was much easier to ride round the test. He scored 72.07% in the first test but only finished 2nd as it was a very high standard!

The second test was the most difficult test that he had ever done and, although there were no massive mistakes, he felt a bit green in places. However, our 68.21% score was enough to win, completing Dante’s qualification in only his second outing.

I’m now feeling rather more relieved with regards to getting the horses qualified, as the only qualification I have left to complete is Wizard’s Inter I, and I have plenty of time for that!

Having got myself mostly organised with qualifying for the regionals, my attention turned more towards getting some of our young horses qualified for the young horse championships. I hadn’t done very much towards this, having only qualified Bracks for the Rhinegold international 6 year old final!

To try and rectify this, we took Bracks (Headmore Boadicia) and Doris (Headmore Daydreamer), a 4 year old homebred chestnut mare by Dimaggio, to Merrist Wood.

Having been enjoying the glorious weather we had been having, you can probably imagine how disgruntled I was to hear that it was meant to chuck it down with rain all day on Saturday; you could tell it was a bank holiday weekend! Thankfully, however, I didn’t get too wet. Doris was first and it was only her second outing so we weren’t expecting anything, we just wanted to take her out for some experience.

The competition arena was very spooky and a big ask for the real babies, but she was beautifully behaved (very ‘user friendly’ as Mum would say). She was a bit unsure at the beginning of the test but she settled as the test went on and she got better and better. She finished 4th and qualified for the final so we were very pleased with her. With a bit more experience she is going to be a lovely competition horse.

Then it was time for Bracks. She goes a lovely colour in the summer, a really rich chestnut but with a flaxen mane and, due to the sunshine, she had gone really blonde and looked gorgeous when she was plaited. She warmed up fairly well but was also a bit spooky in the competition arena, so no wonder the four year olds spooked! There were no massive mistakes but she was just a little tight where she was a bit unsure. However, it was good enough for 2nd equal, meaning that she also qualified for the finals.

So all in all it was a good day, I managed to get both horses qualified for the final and we didn’t get too wet!"