Horley's competitive season has now come to an end, with the final two events being Dressage to Music (DTM) championships in October.
First, Louise Coe made the long journey to Aintree for the British Riding Clubs DTM - her last competition as a junior member. Unfortunately she was unable to take her own horse Murphy due to injury, but a friend of hers, Charlotte, kindly lent her a horse. However, Charlotte and Scooby live in Suffolk, so Louise was only able to ride him a couple of times prior to the weekend of the championships, and only rode the test for the first time two days before the competition! (Charlotte put the test and music, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, together aswell) Bearing in mind the enforced lack of preparation and going first in the class - never easy, Louise and Scooby did a lovely accurate test and came a very creditable 8th against some very good horses. (As an extra bonus, the quadrille team from Charlotte's club qualified for the final at Olympia.)
Congratulations and thanks to Louise for all her hard work to get there and thanks to Charlotte for the loan of Scooby.
Horley's DTM guru, Deirdre Robinson, represented the club at the London & South East DTM championships with her pony Lorna. This was only Lorna's second time in an indoor arena (the first being the qualifier way back in May), and although she was tense in the first test (plain clothes), she still listened to Deirdre and they came 6th (only a mark or so off 4th). In the costume class, which Deirdre did to music from Oliver! dressed as Fagin, Lorna was much more confident and they came 4th - beating horses in this class who'd been placed above them in the first class! So hopefully Lorna will be a star for the future.
Congratulations to Deirdre, and many thanks for her longstanding participation in DTM for Horley.
Area Showjumping
Horley only had one member competing at the Area Showjumping at Castle Goring on 12th June - one of our juniors, Laura Parkes with Jimmy. It was a rather damp day, as the rain didn't actually stop, and this combined with the still-firm ground meant the going was a little slippy, and the course being on a slight incline didn't help either. Laura and Jimmy warmed up well and had a good start to their round but, like many others, had a couple down in the middle. They had a super end though, as Jimmy flew over the last fence beautifully, and Laura was pleased with the round. While we were waiting for the course to be put up for the second round, Laura was undecided whether to jump again or not, as the fences down in the first round were because Jimmy slipped going into them. (Jimmy is unshod, so studs weren't an option!) We watched the first few go, and did see horses slipping, so Laura made the sensible decision not to jump. Far better to end on a positive note after the first round. Thanks to Laura and Jimmy, and also to Laura's friend Rosina who was groom for the day!
Dressage to Music
A successful afternoon for Horley at the Dressage to Music qualifier on 1st May at Plumpton College!
Deirdre Robinson had two of her Highland ponies there - Holly the DTM superstar, and Lorna, who was at her first ever show. As there weren't that many entries, Deirdre switched Lorna from the Intro walk/trot class, which she was going to do as a warm-up, to the LSE Novice class for non-costume. Louise Coe had her horse Murphy - this was actually the first time Lou has made it to a competition for Horley! (But she still managed to injure herself during the week so only rode through her test to the music for the first time the day before.)
Deirdre rode Lorna to music from Oliver!, for both the non-costume and costume Novice tests. Lorna went very well, and it certainly didn't look like her first time out. There wasn't very much time between the tests, so Deirdre wasn't able to do as much costume-wise as usual with either pony. Holly's test (also Novice) was to traditional music, with Deirdre dressed in tartan, and was lovely. It was nice to finally be able to watch Deirdre - I wasn't able to get to any of hers last year.
The juniors can choose whether to ride a Prelim, Novice or Elem test, and Lou did Novice. Her music was Monkees and Beatles, and suited Murphy very well. I think everyone who watched it enjoyed it!Deirdre came away with a 1st (Holly with 78.12% - the highest score of the day), 2nd and a 3rd - so Holly has definitely qualified for the LSE champs again. Lorna was the only other one in costume, so she may well have qualified too. We're not sure whether Lorna's qualified in her non-costume class, but she probably has. Lou also got a 1st (with 77% - second highest score of the day), so will have qualified for the BRC champs at Aintree.
Well done to everyone!!
STOP PRESS!! Deirdre has now had confirmation that Lorna has qualified in both her classes.
Well done to everyone!!