Alice Oppenheimer is a dressage rider and trainer. She and her mother breed, produce and compete horses under the banner of the Headmore Stud. Her successes include Regional and National titles and she represented Great Britain at the 2009 European young rider Championships. In her exclusive H&C blog, Alice provides an insight into running a busy training and livery yard, as well as some of the highs and lows of competing.
"After Bracken’s (Headmore Boadicia) over exuberant performance at Wellington, we thought it would be a good idea to take her out for another ‘final practice run’ before the Winter Championships. So, on Friday 12th March, we took her to Berkshire Riding Centre.
Her first test was a novice qualifier and, as she had been going well when I rode her in sitting trot at home, I wanted to try it at a competition. She warmed up beautifully and her way of going was super. In the test she stayed well balanced but we had a few mistakes. Despite this, she scored 72.5% and won, a credit to how much she has improved recently. I think the score could well have been around 77% with a mistake free test!
The second test was an elementary qualifier and as it was in a short arena with tricky canter work, I thought that she may find the test a bit difficult. The trot work flowed well and, although she did struggle at times in the canter work, there were no mistakes so I was more than pleased with the test. She just needs to learn to cope with her extravagant paces! In the second test she scored 71.67% and won, completing her summer qualification at both novice and elementary.
It was a very satisfactory outing and a perfect ‘final practice’ before the Winter championships!"
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