Area Dressage Report- Sunday 7th August by Clare Kavanagh

On Sunday 7th August Staff College was well represented at the Area Dressage, Hackwood Park, Basingstoke. We had an intermediate individual, a novice team, a mini team AND a mini individual - all turned out beautifully.

Intermediate
Charlotte Barriff on Tommy was our intermediate individual and despite not having very long to warm up, she and Tommy pulled off a great test as always, finishing 6th in her arena on a score of 65%. She was really pleased as it was an improvement on last year and the competition is tough at this level. A big well done to Charlotte as she was competing mostly against horses on her pony!

Novice Team

The novice team consisted of Michaela Wilson on Mick, Camilla Cox on Topaz, Declan Kavanagh on Canon and Clare Kavanagh on William.
Camilla, Clare and Declan all competed in the warm up tests with a promising start, Camilla scoring 65%, Clare 73% and Declan in the 50s. They all felt that there was room for improvement so were positive going into the Area test.

After warming up again, Camilla was first in and did a good test, followed by Clare and Declan in different arenas who also produced good tests. They all felt they had improved from the warm up tests too. Declan was relieved to have it over with as Canon is not easy in the dressage arena but he managed very well and gave 100%. Clare was happy as she has only had her little horse 6 months and he is going better all the time. Camilla works very hard on Topaz and she felt she had done a good test, so was pleased. Last but not least was Michaela. This partnership have done some fab tests out eventing this year and again produced a lovely test with a great big smile from Michaela at the end.

We all waited anxiously for the scores but unfortunately they were not as we had hoped and we felt that the judging was very harsh. The team finished in 13th place which was mid-table and Clare finished 4th in her arena. Although the team was disappointed, they felt they had performed very well (despite the scores!). They have all trained hard and there was definitely an improvement in the way the horses were going from earlier in the year – everyone did their best on the day and did the club proud.

It was an enjoyable afternoon at a lovely venue!

Final scores: Area test
Camilla Cox on Topaz- 52.4% - 13th in Arena
Declan Kavanagh on Canon - 59.6% - 11th in Arena
Clare Kavanagh - 64.8%- 4th in Arena
Michaela Wilson - 58.8%- 11th in Arena

Mini Team

We also fielded a strong Mini team who again did us proud. They did really well, particularly as three out of the four hadn’t ridden at an area competition before and it was a big competition so quite daunting. We had one of our youngest members in the team too – Lucie Donnelly, so a big well done to her.
Everyone rode accurate, rhythmical tests producing good scores, a big well done to you all.
Final scores: Mini Dressage
Rachel Chambers on Chancey 67.9% and an excellent 2nd
Lucie Donnelly on Patsy - 65% - 6th
Tamsin Stamp on Roddy - 61.3% - 13th
Lucy Woodward on Coco - 60.4% - 14th