Diamont cuts cleanly through the opposition
Young riders make their mark in multiple classes, a rider credits her trainer Olivia Oakeley with her return to competition and a part-Andalucian shines
RACHEL LADE and Royal Diamont have been a partnership for less than two months, but they produced two lovely tests to win the overall medium title at the Midway Championships. The pair scored 70.74% to top the medium 73 on the first day of the two-day show, and followed up in the medium 75 with 69.86%.
“This is our third competition together — he has won everything so far!” said Rachel, who is a student at the Royal Agricultural University (RAU). “I love him to pieces.”
Rachel bought the handsome dappled grey eight-year-old from Alex Hardwick at the end of June.
“We lost my horse to peritonitis in January,” she said. “We had just entered our first advanced. It took us five months to find ‘Shimmer’, and I am so excited about what might come with him.”
Another RAU student, Chloe Dawes, took the elementary championship with Femma
Lijbra. The pair had finished second to Zoe Taylor and Dizzy Rascal in elementary 53 on day one, scoring 71.91% to Zoe’s 72.79%, but grabbed the top spot in elementary 59 with 70.47%.
Chloe has had the Tango seven-year-old mare, known as “Chilly” because she is so laidback, since she was a just-backed four-year-old.
“It’s taken time to produce her because she has such an active hindleg that she was pushing herself off balance,” said Chloe, 20. “She’s had a lot of time off as I was in hospital having operations on my kidneys, but she’s such a kind mare — she’s coped so well with everything this weekend.”
Both Rachel and Chloe are members of the British Young Riders Dressage Scheme (BYRDS) South West squad — as were the prelim, novice and prix st georges (PSG) champions.
Molly James and Gracia
Cavalli took both prelim tests with plus-70% scores, including a stunning 76.88% in prelim 19 on Friday. Molly, 16, imported the six-year-old Dutch warmblood mare from Holland last year.
“She’s a complete pleasure, and very trainable — she can get 10s,” said Molly, who added that she has taken “Grace” cross-country schooling, which the mare loved.
“I’ve got to make a decision though as she does have the paces and the talent to go up the levels in dressage,” she said.
TOP SPOT FOR SPOT
THE novice championship was won by the 14.2hh “ghost” appaloosa Spot The Spot II, ridden by Lydia-May Blake, who celebrated her 14th birthday the following day.
The pair were pipped in novice 23 on Friday, scoring 73.13% to Hannah Cook and Jessie Jane’s 74.38%. But they topped novice 37 the next day with 71.11%, handing them the overall win.
“He’s a lovely pony with great character,” said Lydia-May. “He’s my first proper dressage horse and I’ve learnt so much from him, but he’s come on too.”
PSG champions Brittany Dumbleton and Sandiegobese rounded off the BYRDS South West’s highly successful weekend. Horse and rider are both 18, and Brittany has had the former Belgian young rider team horse for two years.
“He’s taken me from unaffiliated prelim to here,” said Brittany with a huge smile.
“He’s such a happy horse who loves what he does. He’s an utter gentleman with an amazing work ethic.”
They scored 68.29% on the first day and 65.66% on the second.
Brittany, who trains with Amy Woodhead and Anne Keen, is starting a law degree at her local university, Plymouth, so she can continue competing “Bese”.
“Grand prix is the aim — even if it is just once!” she said.
While entries in the lower classes were very good, the top few classes rather suffered from clashes with other shows. But
Jane Morris was delighted to head both small inter I competitions with 67.63% and 68.68% on 13-year-old Really Relevant, whom she has brought all the way through the grades.
“He’s been quite tricky along the way, but also tolerant and hard-working. We were both novices and have learnt together,” said Jane, who is a medical secretary for a plastic surgeon and trains with Alice Peternell. “He’s probably my horse of a lifetime and has a natural talent for piaffe and passage.”
The combined inter II and grand prix championship went to insurance broker Naomi Phillips and Hey Arnold, a 12-year-old KWPN by Elcaro whom Naomi has had since he was four.
“He’s such a dude!” she exclaimed. “Today is the first time either of us has ever done a grand prix and I’m over the moon. Everything went well except the piaffe — he did it everywhere else; in the warm-up, outside the arena, on the horse walk — but not in the arena!”
She praised the efforts of the organisers to put on this show.
“There are few opportunities for amateurs like me to compete at the higher levels, and this is great. I hope that British Dressage will add grand prix to the Area Festivals next year.”
FABULOUS FREESTYLE
THE show’s supreme championship for the highest aggregate scores across the weekend went to Laura Dobson and her 15.1hh part-Andalucian, Flamenco, who smashed the novice freestyle to music on Saturday night and scored 78.89%.
Laura imported the grey eight-year-old from Spain four years ago.
“He’s taken ages, because of strength issues — he always had a fabulous walk but his other paces have developed over time,” said Laura, who works in social housing. “I think I’m in shock. He’s always been very special to me, but to get a score like that is just fantastic.”
She hopes to take him up through the levels.
“He’s my only horse, and
I’d like to see what both of our capabilities are and how far we can go,” she said.