EAST
Perseverance has paid off for a tricky but talented horse.
Gillian Portus and her own eight-year-old British warmblood Sisulu (by Sancisco out of Wessex Lady, a Broadstone West Country mare) impressed at Bluegate Hall, scoring over 79% to win at novice not once, but twice.
“I’ve owned ‘Sweep’ since he was a yearling,” said Gillian. “He was a bit of an ugly duckling then, but he’s finally turning into what I imagined all those years ago.”
“He can be extremely difficult at times: at a recent show I was concentrating so hard on riding him quietly through one of his ‘moments’ that when I looked up we had cleared the warm-up completely. I persevere with him with ever-valuable support from Jill Day and recently help from Paul Hayler, too.
“He felt incredible in both tests this weekend, and I think he loved it as much as I did,” added Gillian. “He gets so excited when he goes to a show that I have to hide the lorry until the last minute.
“I’m making the most of the moment, as we’ve both worked really hard for it; only a couple of weeks ago, scores such as these seemed impossible.”
Jo Nutbeam and her nineyear-old coloured Irish sport horse Reg posted a show-high of 68.67% at elementary at Anvil Park Stud.
“I’m a happy amateur and got into dressage when I took him to Chapelfield Equestrian and began to work with the yard manager Zoe Kirkpatrick,” said Jo, who works full-time as head of three small schools. “Zoe has worked miracles with us both to get us to elementary, and I also train with Elly Darling on a monthly basis. Reg has only done three elementaries, and he’s scored over 68% in each.
“He’s a sweet horse; I could just do with a bit less white!”