"It’s that time of year again... regionals! We discussed long and hard how we should get them all done, as I had four horses qualified, but in the end we thought it would be easier to just take all four to Kingston Maurward, 3 – 5 August, and get all of my regionals done at one venue.

Four in one

It was a military operation to get all four horses down there, Mum and I took Wizard (Wurlizer) and Bracks (Headmore Boadicia) and Anne, a friend of my Mum’s, took Delboy (Headmore Delegate) and Dante (Headmore Downtopia) for us. We managed to leave all packed and with four horses on time at 11 on Tuesday morning, something that I thought was very impressive.

A novice to warm up

When we arrived, we settled them all into their stables before Bracks’ novice test on Tuesday afternoon. I was pleased with her test even though it wasn’t quite perfect, we had a few minor blips, but it was good enough to score 70.12% and finished 3rd in a massive class, and qualifying for the Nationals. Dante also competed in the novice late on Tuesday evening, and I was very pleased with his test. I thought that it was the best test that he was capable of doing at the moment but, due to his lack of competition experience, it was a little bit wobbly in places which cost us a few marks here and there. Nonetheless, he scored 66.55% and finished ninth, so we were very pleased as he got placed, and there were 43 in the class! So, first day was very successful and it finished well with Anne cooking us a three course dinner in her lorry!

I'd been drier in the shower

Wednesday was much less stressful as I only had one test, Bracks’ elementary, so there was no rushing around. It did, however, start to rain mid-morning so I got drenched walking from the stables to the warm-up, but luckily we warm up inside. Typically, while I was warming up, the rain eased off and, as the one before me went in, it was still dry, so I was starting to think that maybe I wouldn’t get wet after all. However, as I was trotting round the outside of the arena waiting to start the test, it started to drizzle again and, as we went down the centreline to start the heavens opened and there was what can only be described as a torrential downpour! Bracks was amazing, she just kept going even though we couldn’t really see and there was driving rain, and she did a lovely test, especially considering the conditions! I was so wet it had soaked though everything... you don’t need any more details than that! We scored 70% and finished fourth in a very close class where the winner was less than 1% ahead of us, and this also qualified us for the Nationals.

Del reaches a perfect ten

The final day was quite busy as I had three tests in the space of about two and a half hours. The first was Delboy’s medium test and, as always, Del went beautifully and produced a lovely flowing test, scoring 72.03% and won by nearly 2%, qualifying for the Nationals. It was then all systems go as our advanced medium test was about half and hour after the medium. He hasn’t done many advanced mediums but his changes were good in warm up. His trot work was better than in the medium test but, as I was starting the walk, I could hear a Chinook about to fly over... what is it with me and aeroplanes? It was very loud and the noise made him a little bit tense so the start of the canter work had a few mistakes, but he settled again and the second half of the canter work was lovely. I was very pleased with him as he is still quite new to the level, but the test was good enough to score 69.3% and also win this class, thus qualifying for the Nationals again!

These two wins took Del’s regional titles to a massive ten, double figures! We think that he is the only horse to ever win ten regional titles, quite an achievment!

Holding it together for the Inter I

We literally did not have time to stop as I had to get straight on Wizard to warm up for the Inter I. We didn’t have to do a PSG regional as Wiz had qualified direct to the Nationals earlier on in the year. When I first got on I was feeling quite flat as we had been very hectic, but I gave myself a figurative slap round the face and pulled myself together. I thought ‘I’ve got to ride him because he won’t do it by himself’. Once I had got my act together he was going beautifully in the warm up and, as I was trotting round before my test I was feeling quite confident. The test started well, the trot work was super, just the rein back was a little bit sticky, and his walk was quite good as well. I was going into the canter work thinking don’t mess this up now’! The canter zig zag was quite good and our extended canter was lovely. Once I had done a good set of three time changes I went into the pirouettes thinking ‘now just ride it’. Both pirouettes were good, which is probably the first time in a test I had managed two good pirouettes, and then we had a lovely set of two time changes all well. Our transition to trot was a bit late but overall I was incredibly pleased with the test. I said to my Mum “I think that’s one of the best tests he’s ever done and I don’t care about the score because that felt awsome!”. As it turned out, the judges thought it was pretty good too and we scored 69.3%, which meant we also won that class! What a final day we had to the our regional championships!

So excited

So, following a very successful regionals, we have three horses qualified for the national championships, and I’ll be competing at every level from Novice to Inter I and I can’t wait!"