Saturday 13th February we held a training day for anyone wanting to get help with their flatwork.
We were very fortunate to secure the services of Alison Davis, one of the country’s foremost trainers, who’s c.v. includes training the Irish Under 25 Dressage squad, training one of the individual pony riders for
the Junior European Eventing Championships 2009 and she also works closely with many of the top dressage rider in Britain, including Carl Hester. Alison has also represented Ireland on the international dressage circuit.
Eight of our members took the opportunity to bring their ponies/horses to work with Alison on different aspects of their riding and their flatwork. It was great to see every level of rider from our junior members to members with B tests and ponies from 12h to 16.2h horses. The sessions were split into 40 minutes with two riders in each session. Everyone got time to discuss with Alison what they wanted to achieve followed by one on one training. A real work out was had by all and it was hard to know who was sweating the most at the end – pony or rider!
The day continued with a Dengie Dressage Qualifier and Alison kindly stayed on to judge that. There were 12 competitors in the strongest qualifier I have ever watched. Those who had been training earlier really showed their improvement and made the scoring very tight. We were delighted when two of our members came through to qualify for the final, plus one of Laurel View Pony Club Centre’s members also qualified.
The day finished with a Walk Trot Competition for beginners which attracted a good entry from the LVPCC members, there must be some of our members who would like to give dressage a try – you can even have the test called out – maybe next time?
Everyone who attend on the day enjoyed it is much that they would like to see this type of informal Saturday afternoon repeated. With the Area and Home Championships not very far away perhaps if enough interest was shown we could run one per month, over the next number of months, up to the Championships. This would strengthen our home championship, our eventing and our dressage teams and help with selection to those teams.
I know at this time everyone is watching the pennies and may have their own personal trainers, who do a brilliant job, this is not to replace them, only to compliment their work. So if anyone would like to commit to one session per month with a view to the Championships please text your name to Norma at 07831 141269 and if we have sufficient interest we can make arrangements. It is always fun to train together and it makes for greater team bonding for competitions.