Lessons - It is so lovely to see our clients enjoying their lessons and that we are able to use the indoor school for our adult riders again.
British Dressage - following further easing of lockdown restrictions we were able to go back to warming up in the indoor school and competing in the outdoor, thus enabling us to run long arena tests again. It was lovely to welcome everyone here to compete on both of the May bank holidays.
Horses - We are looking for more horses and ponies to join our team - please get in touch if you have a horse or pony for sale or loan that you think may be suitable for the school.
This month our wonderful Ben (Rabboeni de Haar) went off to his semi-retirement home with a friend of ours. We are delighted to let everyone know that he has settled in and is loving his new life, going off on countryside hacks with the occasional schooling session. He worked in the riding school for 15 years and has provided so many of our clients with the most fabulous learning experience - whether it was their first lesson or an advanced lesson, or to compete - he was successful in affiliated and unaffiliated dressage, university competitions both on the flat and jumping and winner of the BHS riding school competition. He will be sorely missed but so lovely for him to go from us sound and ready for the next chapter.
Very sadly we lost little Holly in May. She was taken ill on the Wednesday with the vet attending straight away but despite the best care she could not be saved. She was kept pain free but had to be PTS on veterinary advice as her condition was only going to decline. She was another long serving member of the Witham Villa team and we are so grateful for all the joy she gave to so many, from learning to ride to again going on and giving first competition experience and getting through to the National finals of the BHS Riding Schools Competition.
Exam Success - we are delighted to announce that our 3 junior apprentices all took and passed their BHS Stage 1 exam. Congratulations to Jessie, Sarah-Jane and Laura.
British Dressage Regional Championships- India and Eddie (Escade) WON their regional class on 70% in Advanced Medium Silver giving them direct qualification to the Winter Championships. Huge congratulations and good luck at the championships at the end of June.
Verity and Izzy (Issey Magic) were 4th in Elementary Gold Freestyle on 69.4%, 5th in Medium Silver Freestyle on 69.72% and 10th in the Medium Silver class. They have now heard that they have been issued a Wild Card to compete in the Medium Freestyle at the Winter Championships at the beginning of July,
Wellington CDI this was the first International competition for India and Eddie and what a wonderful experience to ride at such a prestigious show. They were 6th in the Team test AM92, 9th in the Individual AM96 and then the highlight of the weekend was 4th place in the Freestyle on 72%. We were thrilled with this result especially as this was the first time India had managed to ride through the test to the music and the first time she had ever done a dressage to music competiton! Further to this show they were invited to compete at the Somerford Park Premier League show in the Junior Selectors class for the Europeans, again another very positive experience for them.
