Well that was a long day, Marie Kentand I (Rosemary Swadden) arrived at Leyland Court at 8.30am in order to get the first of our competitors warmed up and the necessary administration done before Amy Mawson riding Bright Spirit set the ball rolling for Wessex in the individual P7 and simultaneously Claire Tobin and Hannah were competing in the other arena doing N30. Immediately following Amy was Nicola Brown and Gulliver. The preliminary marks were tight, the winner getting just over 66%, Amy had 65.23% to come 4th and best ROR, Nicola wasn’t far behind with 61,14% but out of the placings. Likewise in the Novice 30, Claire achieved 64.81% but was out of the ribbons. Tiffany Lay with Caminito and Kim Swift with Atlas IV followed each other later in the same class. Both combinations rode well, Tiff was 7th with a score of 68.27% and Kim was unplaced with 63.27%. Back in the preliminary arena and Laura Watts caused some interest by competing side saddle! She and Cracker did a nice test to come 3rd with a score of 66.14%. We all thought Hollie Cowley did a good relaxed test but the judge thought otherwise and gave her 64.77% for 10th place.
Over in the Novice arena Kim and Tiff were back in action, marks were again very close, Tiff with 61.43%, Kim 61.19% but neither were in the placings. Stephanie Swadden and Snooze were stepping up to Novice for only the second time. Having allowed plenty of time for warm up as she has been a bit fresh recently, they overcooked it and were a bit flat in their test to get 56.9%.
Then it was back to the other side for the Elementary class. Janet Stares and Wizz did a pleasing test for 65.53% and 10th place while Dawn Baccus and Desert Sea were just ahead of Jan in 7th place with 66% and highest place ROR in that class. Finally Jan did the Medium test with, as the judge said, a much improved Wizz who came 7th with 63.23%
As you may have realised our teams were not placed in the top six but all our riders gave pleasing performances, best of all great team spirit with Amy and Claire supplying food and hot drinks, Marie and I were well looked after. Marie has to take the credit for the following photos of all our competitors.
