Dressage
at Hickstead
Unaffiliated Championships
8th September 2007
(kindly supported by
Baileys Horse Feeds, Advance Group Photocopiers, Andrew
Gilham Photography & Equine Elite)
Eighty combinations qualified for the Championships
of the Dressage at Hickstead Unaffiliated season. The
crème de la crème donned their competition
gear and the horses looked resplendent in their whites!
Claire Randall and her
five year old gelding Viquino by Negro out of a Rhodiamant
mare were crowned Preliminary Champions and were Reserve
Champions in the Novice class! Having lost a horse to
diabetes in January, Claire found this super gelding
in Holland in March. As a “quite sharp”
five year old, Claire said Hickstead was a perfect venue
to bring him, with the super arenas, warm up and excellent
Judges. Claire is trained by Amanda Brewer, who helped
her find Viquino, and she is so grateful to Amanda for
her training and support. Claire says “I couldn’t
cope with such a talented horse without Amanda!”
We look forward to seeing the combination again soon
and wish them every success for the future.
The Novice Champion is
Sarah-Jane Cox and I Should Coco II. This eight year
old Trakehner by Adamello has been owned by Sarah-Jane
for a year. Sarah says her success is down to a huge
team effort. She trains with Diane Grinyer and Robbie
Carpenter. She said that earlier in the year she would
not have been in the top six. However, her determination
to improve as a rider meant Sarah-Jane has spent many
hours on the lunge and the pain has certainly paid off!
Having been the fifth competitor to go, she had to wait
for seventeen other competitors to go to see if her
score of 67.26% was enough to be champion! Sarah commented
how helpful the organisers are at Dressage at Hickstead
and would like to thank the sponsors for the super prizes.
Sarah is going to consolidate on her training over the
winter and hopes to compete at Elementary in the spring.
We wish her lots of luck.
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Jennie Watson and Spirella
were Elementary Champions. This super 13 year old mare
is owned and ridden by Anu Rantanen. Spirella has not
competed for two years and so trainer Jennie took her
to Hickstead and in two outings qualified her for the
Championships! Jennie says she is a lovely mare and
a real pleasure to train. Anu has a super five year
old at home and her daughter also rides the horses.
Jennie told me that the competitions are a real team
effort with the whole family helping and enjoying the
day. The team work obviously has paid off and the delight
was clear to see at the prize giving.
I must mention also,
that my mare Tia was Reserve Elementary Champion with
Dane Rawlins’ rider, Ricardo Prado Novaes. This
super state premium mare by Laurentianer is going from
strength to strength with Dane’s training. So
a big thank you to Dane and Ricardo from me!
The former American bred
racehorse, Phoenix USA and Amanda Francis became the
new Medium Champions. When I spoke to Amanda, she said
she was still on Cloud 9! This lovely 15 year old Thoroughbred
has qualified for the PetPlan show in April at Elementary
and has qualified for the Regionals in February in the
Elementary and Medium Music! Having raced till he was
six, he then went to a hacking home and is now showing
his talent for dressage in a wonderful partnership with
Amanda. Prizegivings can be a bit hairy though –
if he is stood in a line up, he thinks he’s ready
for the off! Well done both and good luck for the up
coming shows!
Reserve Champion
in the Medium class was Mr Flashman and Sam Buckley.
This multi talented 12 year old Oldenburg by Freedom
also show jumps! Sam was very pleased with him as he
can be a little tricky at times. She was delighted to
win at Hickstead as the standard of competitors is always
high and the Judges are Affiliated Judges. Congratulations
and good luck when you affiliate him again! |