Spring Festival Report

Show Jumping

We had lots of combinations qualify for the Spring Festival final in show jumping.

Millie Monico kicked things off in the 80 with LLC Sylvie. Unfortunately they had a stop at the first fence when Sylvie just switched off slightly after the long walk from the warm up arena into the indoor school, before going on to jump a lovely clear around the rest of the course.

In the 90 Angelina Cameron jumped a foot perfect clear on Eduard, giving the fences plenty of air. There were some very tight turns to take in the jump off, and to be in with a chance of a rosette Angelina had to attack the course and go for it. She gave it a good go, and just came away with 4 faults after trying a very tight turn to the penultimate fence. This kept them out the top placings, they finished in 23rd out of nearly 100 competitors, not forgetting these were the best combinations in the country.

In the 1metre we had Angelina, Olivia Fisher and Isobel Morton representing Flamstead. Isobel and Olivia jumped super clears, while Angelina’s horse looked a little tired after a busy week and she decided to pull up after a stop. It was another huge class with over 60 competitors, and only 25 made it into the jump off. Isobel and her lovely new horse Kassius had a slight navigational error, and Olivia’s Moose had a couple of poles when attempting some of the tricky turns. To finish in the top 25 in the country is a great achievement.

In the 110 we had Josie Reid and Olivia Fisher. It was a very meaty up to height course. Olivia just rolled one pole, and Josie two but both girls rode beautifully and it was a very exciting class to watch.

Well done to all our Flamstead competitors, as always you did us proud.

Firstly we’d like to say how proud we are of all the riders that represented Flamstead at the Dressage Spring Festival Champs – competition was hot and the classes were HUGE. We had a few swaps with horse and rider substitutions but no-one skipped a beat so well done to all and their support crew, thank you all!

First of all, our team :

Zoe Hooper

Warm Up Class 68.40 and 5th place

Champs Class 67.50% (15/40)

Zoe did an incredible job with a near perfect round on Lilly who went beautifully for her. Polished and well presented, this combination was hard to fault in either round.

Rory Laing 65.63%

Rory and Roxy did a lovely test with just an unfortunate exhuberance going into canter which lost a few marks. But again, a very well presented test.

Amelie Langhan

Warm up class 64.8%

Champs Class 62.92%

Amelie and wonderful 20 yr old Woo had a rather tense first test where Woo was a bit excited to be at Champs! She settled for a much better second test but the tension was evident in the walk work which cost quite a few marks sadly.

Sasha Tindall

Warm Up class  62.12% (15th)

Champs class 61.88%

Sasha rode two impeccable test on 23 yr old Chino who she only rode once before the show! Chino isn’t normally known for his love of dressage but he allowed Sasha to guide him impeccably around the two tests.

Olivia Fisher. 62.17%

Josie Reid 63.83%

Olivia and Josie rode two very respectable Intermediate tests around their jumping commitments which is NOT easy! The Intermediate test is very complicated and frankly remembering it is an achievement! Both Moose and Beano were hot to trot in the test and the girls managed to keep them calm and focused for most of it but their eagerness cost them a few marks on the day. So much more to come from both combinations!

Isobel Morten 64.69% and 8th Open

Iz and Coby navigated their way around a very technical Open test for a very credible score placing them 8th! Still a relatively new combination in the ring, they will be tough to beat when they have more experience together!

We only had one member, Josie Reid, qualify for the Arena Eventing Final from Flamstead after the optimum time caught out a few at the qualifier. Josie and Beano were competing in the 100 class which took place on Sunday afternoon. It was a super course, with lots of very skinny fences and difficult turns and angles on the cross country section over portable fences, some of which could be knocked down.

It started with 8 show jumps, followed straight away by the cross country, all to be completed within an optimum time, although the competitors are not told what the time is, so they need to ride and maintain a forward rhythm throughout the course.

Josie and Beano jumped a lovely clear over the show jumps and then flew around the cross country. They made all the tricky lines look easy, Beano just clipped one of the roll top fences jumping into the right angled corner, which sadly came down, leaving them with 4 penalties, plus 0.8 of a time fault for being too fast, so a very well judged round. This left them in 11^th position and sadly just outside the placings but was a very good effort by Josie and Beano when you consider they were competing against all the best combinations in the pony club in the country, Well Done!!