Riders shine at HOTY
Kerikeri’s Julie Flintoff and Belladonna MH continued their spell of good form by winning the Level 7 title at the Land Rover Horse of the Year Show in Hastings last weekend.
The latest championship came after the pair won the Level 7 title at the nationals in Feilding in February.
Julie’s mum Kay said the two major results mean Julie and Belladonna will be making the step up next year in order to compete at the next two levels, the two highest being Level 8, otherwise referred to as Baby Grand Prix, and Level 9 or “full blown” Grand Prix.
To prepare, Julie and Belladonna will continue with their demanding training regime over the winter where the focus will be on three areas, piaffe dressage (basically where the horse “trots on the spot”), passage dressage (a “very slow cadence trot”) and 1 x Changes (where it “looks like the horse is skipping”).
Kay noted it usually took a minimum of five years for a rider to train their horse up to Grand Prix standard; Julie and Belladonna have, in comparison, taken seven years to reach this point.
“Julia has never trained a horse up to this level before. They are learning together, and progressing together and getting good scores along the way,” Kay said.
The other horse to reap success at the HOTY Show hailing from the Awanui-based stud, Matthews Hanoverians, was Fanfare MH ridden by Casey Burton to victory in the Level 3 title.