June 2024

Unaffiliated Dressage Spring Championship - The final show in the Spring series was held in June and presentations were kindly made by our judge on the day, Sandra Smith. The series had run from January through to June with great competition for the championship awards. Thank you to everyone who takes part in these shows, it is lovely seeing you all and your beautiful horses. Our prizewinners were:-

Intro Open - Champion - Louise Hill riding Buddy

Intro Open Reserve Champion - Lucie Svandelikova riding Wilma

Intro Veteran Rider Champion - Ann Lee riding Stan

Intro Veteran Rider Reserve Champion - Vivian Smith riding Jimbo Boy

Prelim Short Arena Open Champion - Claire Green riding Cohen

Prelim Short Arena Open Reserve Champion - Alex Montgomery riding Jeanie

Prelim Short Arena Veteran Rider Champion - Rebecca Wood riding On The Buzz

Prelim Short Arena Veteran Horse Champion - Bodey - ridden by Joanne Scholes

Prelim Long Arena Open Champion - Sharon Marshall riding Tino

Prelim Long Arena Open Reserve Champion - Sally Lane riding Mocklers John

Prelim Long Arena Veteran Rider Champion - Rebecca Wood riding On The Buzz

Prelim Long Arena Veteran Rider Reserve Champion - Nicky Barr riding Epetia

Novice Open Champion - Allison North riding Fernie

Novice Open Reserve Champion - Deb Cooper riding Cindy

Novice Veteran Horse Champion - Fernie - ridden by Allison North

Novice Veteran Horse Reserve Champion - Cindy - ridden by Deb Cooper

Elementary Open Champion - Allison North riding Fernie

Elementary Veteran Rider Champion - Sara Helmer riding Castleview Dun

Elementary Veteran Horse Champion - Castleview Dun ridden by Sara Helmer

Competition for the Autumn Series, kindly sponsored by Rowleys Accountants runs from July until December.

Saturday Evening Dressage Demo - Verity and India hosted this demo - “In The Zone”, showing how we train and compete our dressage horses. The horses used in the demo were 6 year old Nalla (Vanilla) owned by India and Pat Ruck, showing training up to Elementary, 13 year old Gaya owned by Verity showing Medium and Advanced Medium and 15 year old Eddie (Escade) showing work up to PSG/Inter 1 and a little towards Grand Prix. We had a lovely audience and a good interactive evening with plenty of questions from the audience. Thank you to everyone who came and supported us.

Dressage Clinic - we were delighted to host another dressage clinic with International senior rider Kate Cowell. The next date with Kate is Monday 30th September - bookable via My Riding Life

Repairs and Renewals - in line with our policy of works to maintain and improve the riding centre, this month we replaced the lights in the outdoor school with LED lights so come the winter and darker nights we will all benefit from these with a bright and evenly lit arena to ride in.

Fencing repairs were also carried out this month.

Witham Villa Horses - we are delighted to welcome a new pony - Romeo here to Witham Villa. Romeo is very kindly on loan to us, coming from a showing background. He will initially be worked by our staff before he becomes available for lessons.

British Dressage - Ginty (Integra) who was Shannon’s foal went to her first affiliated competition and had a good outing to Newbold Verdon EC scoring over 69% at Prelim

Izzy (Issey Magic) completed qualification for Medium Gold Regionals ridden by India.

International Dressage - We were delighted that India and Eddie achieved selection for the Great Britain Young Rider Team for the European Championships. They attended a pre-Euros camp at the Cotswolds Club this month.