July.
Woodington Winners!
July saw the first of our dressage to music competitions & I think it's safe to say it was a big success! With just the pairs class being undersubscribed we had good entries for both the other classes. A beautiful test in class one, the Prelim & Novice, saw a win for Caroline Marsh riding Zac, while Carol Alford & Amara were the winners of the Elementary, Medium & Advanced Medium. Kerry Tyrell & Pippa Griffin won the pairs class with their coloured duo Hi-moons Spellbound & Tolkiens Trilogy, well done to them all!
Olivia.
Olivia has had what can only be described as a pretty amazing month with her little gang!
At the beginning of the month she headed off to Hartpury Festival of Dressage with Rocky for the Young Horse Semi Finals. With us all glued to the live streaming back here at Woodington we saw them do a beautiful test that we later learned had scored 8.0 putting them in 2nd place qualifying them for the Nationals in September!
At Sparsholt regionals Rocky reminded us in case we needed it that horses aren't machines. It was the first time she'd competed when in season & Olivia found herself riding a very different horse. With scores ranging from 2 up to 8 her score sheets made interesting reading but it was a learning curve for Olivia who chalked that one up to experience.
Both Ozzy & Peaches had good days though, Ozzy finished just outside the placings in a really strong Novice
with Peaches just ahead of him in 11th.
In another strong class Peaches finished in 10th place in the Elementary with 67.39%.
Not wanting to be left out Honesty had her first taste of dressage at the Chilworth Evening Dressage. They went H/C in the Prelim & scored a whopping 73%!
Now for the really exciting bit! Not wanting to watch on live stream this time a small support crew from Woodington headed to The Royal International at Hickstead to watch Olivia & Rocky in the 6 year old Championships.
First to go in the class they did a super test & they held onto their lead to win the class with 75.60%. We were all very proud to see them crowned International 6 year old Champions & have the national anthem played for them in the prize giving!
Photos by Alison Jenden
Alison,Denver & Lizzie.
Denver has had a fairly quiet month just hacking around the fields as he's had a few problems with his feet but hopefully that is all sorted now so he should be back in action soon.
Lizzie did the Chilworth evening dressage & she wasn't feeling entirely up for it so it was decided to drop her back down to do an easy medium with her rather than the advanced medium. She did everything she was asked but without much enthusiasm & finished 6th in the PYO. A visit from our wonderful physio & a change of saddle soon put her back on track. She is still growing & changing shape all the time so it's a job to keep up with her sometimes!
At our Dressage to Music Alison was really pleased with her, still much to work on at advanced medium level but the test improved as it went along & they finished 7th in the Ele/Med/Adv Med class with 65% doing Advanced medium.
Pictures of Lizzie thanks to Tlovellphotography.
Mandy & Ryan.
For a 'retired ' person Mandy is certainly keeping herself busy. She started the month with a week of scoring at Hartpury Festival of dressage, then went on to do a further 3 days scoring at Sparsholt for their Regional Championships!
She has found time to compete Ryan a couple of times though. At the Chilworth evening dressage she was reasonably pleased with 66% in the PYO riding Advanced Medium 90. In our Dressage to Music they finished in 2nd place in the Ele/Med/Adv Med doing Advanced Medium with 70%.
Photo thanks to Gill Woodthorpe.