Dressage Bishop Burton, Merrist Wood, Easton & Otley plus highlights
An upcoming stallion stamps his authority on the top levels, while Mount St John accrue a collection of titles and a horse completes his comeback from a road accident with a victory
AMY WOODHEAD stole the show and booked two tickets to the winter championships with Branduardi, convincingly winning both the prix st georges (PSG) and the inter I.
The imposing Breitling W stallion, owned by Victoria Wright and Sir John Peace, is called ‘My Little Pony’ at home, but here he showed how much he has grown in confidence, stamping his authority on both classes.
“He has a varied life at home, jumping and going to the beach; on Christmas Day I dressed up as a Christmas pudding and rode him bareback in a headcollar,” said Amy, 25, who took on the ride last summer when she was setting up her own yard. “It’s all part of keeping him happy and
developing our partnership.”
The 12-year-old was nearly foot perfect, apart from a cheeky moment in the PSG, from which Amy quickly recovered, and he used his power to good effect.
“It’s the first time I’ve felt able to ride him without having to hold his hand all the time, and in the second test he performed better again,” added Amy, who is still riding Branduardi in a snaffle.
She trains with her mother, Tracy, and Carl Hester, and plans to do a couple of international outings at small tour before moving up to grand prix.
Amy also gained qualification with a second place on her own Don Cara in the medium gold, and her stable jockey, Jenny Martell, won the silver section with the Wards’ Reitlands Diamond Hit. Jenny is riding the German riding pony while 13-year-old Tabby Ward is recovering from cancer. Tabby will hopefully take back the reins in the summer.
Gary Foggon took two freestyle tickets: he won at novice with his partner Mark Caley’s Who’s A Boozer, who was involved in a road accident last summer, and retained his elementary title with Gypsy Fortune, who just missed qualifying at medium.
“It was Who’s A Boozer’s comeback after the accident where he ended up like a starfish in the road after bolting when a car hit us from behind, so it’s a very special win,” said Gary, who turned the horse away for three months to recover. “Fortunately it turned out to be scrapes and bruises, but he’s nervous and we needed to rebuild his confidence.”
Gary has just begun training with Carl Hester on Gypsy Fortune, who also hunts and does combined training with Mark.
Roxanne Shipley was the advanced medium gold queen, winning the straight class and the freestyle on Bravoure, a Sandreo 12-year-old who was previously ridden by her sister Bethany.
Roxanne, who works as an estate agent, took over the ride last summer. Their dramatic entrance to Michael Bublé music, culminating in two quick changes, was part of their technically
difficult freestyle, for which she was rewarded.
Despite having no competition, Roxanne also earned a ticket in the medium freestyle with her seven-year-old Sarkozy mare
Show Sister, who performed to Ed Sheeran tunes.
A TOP-SCORING DOUBLE CHAMPION
THE show’s highest scorer was Jayden Brown on Mount St John’s Atterupgaards 02, a rising sevenyear-old Belissimo daughter of Fiona Bigwood’s former grand prix ride Atterupgaards Orthelia. They produced two tests nudging over 75% to win the elementary and medium gold titles.
“She can be a bit shy and isn’t the boldest character, but she’s fun to ride and developing all the time,” said Jayden, who has relocated permanently from Australia to be the Mount St John stud’s head rider.
He also piloted Mount St
John Forever into second in the elementary and picked up a ticket for her too. Mount St John De La Beaute was third in the inter I.
Darryl Thickitt has rebuilt his string to feature a small number of talented horses, and it paid off with a novice gold win with
John Minion’s Faszination I, a Foundation six-year-old bought from Brightwells sales.
“He did some top work and still scored well despite a couple of green bits, so it’s good to know I’ve something up my sleeve going into the championships,” said Darryl.
“Doing a few horses really well is also a lot less stressful than my previous life,” he joked.
Darryl stepped down from the job as pony team trainer last August, citing personal reasons.
Emma Littlewood won the
silver medium freestyle with Expo, by Spielberg, and admitted she was winging it with her music, which was mixed by a DJ friend and arrived the week before.
“Expo’s only done four music tests, and we borrowed some at first, but it didn’t work for him,” she said. “He had a year off with a keratoma and came back last year, so we’ve been concentrating on working at medium and weren’t thinking about the music, so we’ve come late to it. But it’s paid off!