All we can say is....
WHAT A FAB YEAR TO BE IN
STROUD!!
Our results list is through the roof from 2011! our showjumping teams and dressage teams did us all soo proud! keep your eyes peeled for the write ups from the day. bring on 2012, there will be no stopping us!!
Well Done to Emily Stafford on her results at Home Farm Equestion Centre's Dressage compeition!
On Sunday 27th of november, I went with my pony Guinness to Home Farm Equestrian Centre, it was a qualifier to compete at Hartpury. My first test was Prelim 18 which was a disaster and came 7th out of 10 competitiors. My next class was the Novice which went much better and we came 3rd! and missed out on qualifying for Hartpury by only 3 points which was a little disappointing though I had a lovely day out and came home with a rossette that I didn't expect to get, considering the standard of the other competitiors.
Emily x
A huge WELL DONE to Gracie Fickling who worked hard and came 2nd in the Area Dressage championships!!
Area dressageIt wasn’t one of the best starts to a competition day that I’d ever had. We had managed to get our trailer stuck between another trailer on a single track road. Charlie, who you may know is not a good traveller at the best of times, was going loopy. Great, there goes my chance of a calm dressage test. We finally arrived at the competition after a lot of manoeuvring and feeling a lot more stressed than we should have been. I opened up the doors to get Charlie out as I knew he’d need calming down, what I didn’t expect was him to be dripping from head to toe with sweat. I’d spent the last few days washing, combing, brushing and plaiting him and it had all gone to waste. I was hot, upset and frustrated and at that point I felt like just going home. Luckily for me Helena Sherwood was on hand to help get Charlie looking respectable again. Louisa Miller, Chloe Griffiths and Emily Stafford, Kayleigh Williams and I all set off with Ali Mills to warm up. After all that trauma Charlie did a very neat and calm test and we came first as an individual in our section, I couldn’t believe it! It also meant that we were off to the dressage championships!! Louisa, Chloe and Emily who were on the dressage team with me and Kayleigh competed as an individual. All of them did lovely tests and everyone was so supportive of each other. Louisa did especially well and came 2nd in the warm up class and Toby behaved impeccably for Chloe despite being so young. Unfortunately we weren’t placed as a team as it was very competitive, but for such a small club we did very well. ChampionshipsI knew I’d have to step up my game for the championships, and the month I had to prepare didn’t seem a very long time. It was a lot of lateral work later that Ali Mills and I had perfected the test, and I was still a little worried that it wouldn’t be good enough. Tina had volunteered to come with me and my mum to Cheshire, where the competition would take place. We had to book a stable for Charlie and a hotel for us for the night before because of the long distance, and it was lucky we did as we hit some very heavy traffic and it took us 5 or 6 hours to get there. There were a lot of very posh horses and ponies around at the competition, and there I was sat on a pony with bobbly plaits the size of golf balls, for the first time I felt nervous at the thought of doing a dressage test, especially when Charlie had been bucking in the warm up area. There must have been a lot of people thinking how on earth did they qualify? Charlie behaved beautifully throughout the test; he just seems to know when he’s performing and when he’s practicing. We had a little hiccough in right canter where we broke into trot and I agonised afterwards over it as other than that it was a very smooth test. I was still very pleased with Charlie especially since the weather was pretty grim. After hours of practicing, travelling, planning and cleaning it all came down to just those 4 minutes of work and we had to wait a further few hours in a downpour to find out the results. I thought to myself that I’d be very happy to come in the top fifteen but I wasn’t too expectant. So it came a huge shock to find out that I’d come second. We received a huge rosette along with a numnah and a goody bag. Even if I hadn’t been placed it would have been such a positive and worthwhile experience, but the result just proved that you don’t have to have a £10,000 horse and a posh lorry to do well.
If it hadn’t been for a couple of people it wouldn’t have been possible to have been placed or even got there, so, many thanks to Ali Mills who helped train me over both competitions and thank you very much Tina for giving up your time to drive us there and giving me support and a helping hand whilst we were there. And of course thank you Little Charles.
Gracie xx
