NORTH
A winter spent training at home has paid off for Helen Lancaster with two wins and summer qualification.
Helen and her 10-year-old Socrates Hit won both mediums with plus-70% scores at Northallerton after consolidating their work. They will now move back up to advanced medium.
“It’s been good to have a time when we could concentrate on our work in training, rather than chase scores,” said Helen, who has had the Santano gelding since he was a four-year-old.
Last year they opted to contest the Area Festivals at advanced medium, rather than the summer regionals, and finished third at the semi-finals. They will aim for PSG this autumn.
Helen works as a dray lady — delivering beer — for Yorkshire Heart, a brewery and vineyard near York and fits her dressage riding and training round her job.
Rebecca Hutchinson scored two prelim wins at Port Royal with Flayne Dandini, whom she rides for Joyce Fearn.
“He can be very sharp but he’s intelligent. When he’s in the right frame of mind, he’s brilliant, and he came out wanting to do it,” said Rebecca, who was using the outing as a warm-up for the regionals at Myerscough.
“I took over the ride about a year ago, and he went to the nationals in the summer,” she added. “We’ve moved him up to novice, but wanted to make sure we had the right match practice at prelim.”