"The nationals are finally here, so last week we gave Bracks (Headmore Boadicia) her final outing in preperation - the Wellington Riding advanced medium freestyle to music final.

A truly amazing horse

We didn't have the best of run-ups to the final, as she had messed around in the field the week before and given herself a sore back - not ideal this close to a couple of big competitions. Luckily, Natalie from Jenny Hadland and Company had been out a couple of times to sort her out so Bracks was able to go and compete.

We weren’t on until late, so no panicking to get ready, and she warmed-up well despite Wellington’s International arena being very spooky. It was pitch black outside and the test was under floodlights, but she didn’t even look at a thing throughout her whole test. The test wasn’t perfect, there were a few little mistakes here and there and the changes were a little bit green in the atmosphere, but I was nevertheless over the moon with how she had just gone into the arena and got on with her job. We scored 74.33%, which was good enough to finish second, not bad for all the drama we had had beforehand. That mare really is amazing.

We then had the prizegiving, where she amazed everyone further. She stood there looking, literally, like a donkey while all of the presentations were done, and then when she trotted off she transformed doing her most amazing extended trot. She is such a superstar.

Winter qualifiers

Then, on Friday, we went back to trying to get all of the horses qualified for the winters, so we took Roxy (Headmore Roxanne) and Yogi (Ca-Traum), Gayle’s nine-year-old international show jumper - who we are trying to turn into a dressage horse - to Crofton Manor for a prelim and a novice. Gayle was on first in the prelim on Roxy in which she still managed to score 68.64% despite all the spooking.

I then did the novice H/C on Roxy to have a ride on her in the arena and see what she was like. The trot work was a little unsettled in places but the canter work felt lovely, and I think it did Roxy good to have a bit of a schooling round the arena.

It was then back to Gayle to do the prelim on Yogi. It was Yogi’s first ever dressage test and Gayle was very nervous. However, they didn’t do a bad job, it was a little bit wobbly and a bit spooky but she got round, so we weren’t too disappointed. They also scored 68.64%, meaning that Gayle finished equal first on both horses and that Roxy is now qualified for the regionals at prelim. We couldn’t have asked for a better result, and Gayle is really competitive and gets grumpy if she doesn’t win, so I was happy as well.

I then got on Yogi for the novice H/C as it was his first competition and we wanted him to have a quiet ride round. He was much more settled than in the prelim and did an absolutely smashing test, especially as it was his first ever dressage show. His mediums were good and his counter canter was balanced - which is obviously a difficult movement for a show jumper - and we were all pleased. If I hadn’t been H/C he’d have won the class, so it was a good day for all."