Showjumping and Riding Club Riders Enjoy Great Success competing with British Dressage in the British Dressage Northern Region
As a freelance trainer, I am interested in all areas of competition dressage and I have focussed on bringing riders from all backgrounds and abilities into affiliated dressage. I take part in a lot of activities organised by the British Dressage Northern Region including judge training. These sessions have taught me dressage from the eye of the judge and have updated my ideas on test riding and teaching. My friends and clients who ride at unaffiliated dressage or who compete with British Eventing/BSJA have been inspired by this and after some persuasion, they decided to take a big step and go affiliated!
Angela Moran Riding Jake
The affiliated experience:
Angie who has competed at unaffiliated dressage, show jumping, eventing and taken part in riding club activities decided to do some training to help her start and compete unaffiliated dressage/eventing with her new horse Jake. At the first glance I knew there was potential for a good dressage test and so I raised the bar, set the challenge to train for affiliated dressage and get the confidence to go for it. We even made a deal that if I found Angie a dressage saddle she would compete with BD. Within a fortnight we had a lovely Ideal Jessica on the horses back and the entry filled in for Richmond on Sat 21st January for Prelim 7. This day soon came about and with a few tweaks here and there and a lot of hard work it was time to give it a go. With a gentle but generous warm up allowing plenty of time to prepare, Angie went into the arena and rode a test which we were both smiling about and very pleased with. The scores were in and we were absolutely delighted to hear about their 3r d place with 66%. With the helpful and encouraging judge’s comments, Angie had such a fantastic experience. Angie mentioned that considering the amount of Prelim entries, the venue was “quiet, professionally run and not at all intimidating!” She now aims to become a BD member in order to try and achieve another +62% to qualify for Area Festivals and in time work up through the levels.
Jo used to compete primarily with BSJA and when she found out that her showjumping horse Indie was also quite good at dressage. She also found out that dressage training/competing helped with her showjumping and therefore decided to give BD a go. Over the past year she has achieved so much at Prelim and Novice level including Regional Championships qualifications that this year she has decided to step up to Elementary and possibly Medium level. Saturday the 21st at Richmond was booked in for a Novice test and then Elementary 50 (which is quite a challenging move up). When he scores came in, Jo was thrilled to find out that she had won the Elementary with just over 64% and placed 2nd in the Novice with just over 65%. Jo commented that “gaining increased percentages and moving up through the levels in BD is very rewarding. It is encouraging to feel hard work in training pays off and reflects in the scores.” She now aims to maintain points, placings and percentages to qualify for the Reg ional Championships at Elementary level and attend some BYRDS training.
Why affiliate?
You don’t have to be a BD member; it is now so easy to affiliate and there is a lot to take away from competing with British Dressage
It is not as scary as it seems; the judges are all qualified and therefore you are guaranteed to receive correct scores and constructive feedback on your score-sheets
The venues are well organised and competing affiliated really raises your standards in test riding and training
You can also qualify to compete at area festivals by sending in two score sheets over the threshold percentage and you can even start competing by having a go at Walk-Trot tests.
BD competitions encourage the correct riding and training of the horse and although it has some of the world’s leading riders competing and training there is a very precious group which BD is destined to encourage; new starters in affiliated dressage. It is those people who want to achieve the correct way of going, work up through the levels, improve their BE dressage scores or even improve their scores at unaffiliated events like Trailblazers.
The British Dressage Northern Region not only runs affiliated competitions but there is so much more to get involved with such as social events, dressage career development, judge training, BYRDS (young rider training), test riding and dressage training days. All you have to do to become part of the Northern region is to join the mailing list and you can find out the dates for a whole range of events. To join the mailing list you can e-mail the Northern Regional Development Officer Sarah Huntridge Sarah.Huntridge@britishdressage.co.uk or join the facebook page: The Official British Dressage "NORTHERN" Region Group. Whatever your level of dressage you can find all the information you need to progress by visiting the British Dressage website at www.britishdressage.co.uk select Regional Activities then Northern.
Hope to see you soon.
Lucinda Bird
