I’m writing after one of the most horrible weeks of snow at Beckside for years, which grounded us just when we were gearing up for spring and some exciting competitions planned.

The year has got off to a great start. Most of February was gearing up for the regionals with Detonator and Sandonista. We had some great test riding runs at Bishop Burton, getting them used to the scary Main Arena, and also a trip to Becky Moody’s for two days training which was just brilliant and really focused on tidying up the final rough edges. To be honest the competition is so so hot at regionals now I just try and do the best tests I possibly can and if I’m finishing in the top 5 I’m thrilled up against world class competition.

Sando was up first on the Sunday and he was just a total star. The main arena really does not phase him like it does Detonator and he felt brilliant, not putting a foot wrong. I was thrilled when I went to the score board and found him laying in 2nd place. It was a nervous wait for the last horse to go and he stayed there, the top two horses qualifying for the Nationals in April!!! It was a huge boost to get a nationals ticket. I really needed that after last year!

The poor boy had to wait a rediculous five hours for prize giving, to then have an hour and a half trip home, to set off again 12 hours later as he was second on in the Medium class. As you can imagine he was rather tired and was just flat in his test, leaving him in 8th place, but with the likes of Amy Woodhead and the Mount St John horses in his class I was still pleased with him.

Detonator was feeling amazing, the best he has in 18 months on the run up to the competition. I made a stupid mistake and went wrong in the PSG, so unusual for me, so that cost us a higher score but we still finished in 6th. The Inter 1 was less than an hour after which is a big ask when doing two tests at that level. It was a fairly mistake free test and I was very pleased with how he felt, one of our best tests for a good while, finishing in 4th place. Unfortunately there was a huge difference between the three judges, one having us on 63% and another on 69% – but thats dressage for you!

I’ve now got a nervous wait as we are now first on the reserve list for Great Britain at Keyso CDI next week in the small tour. I’m keeping everything crossed we get to go as it could be our last time this year as they have just changed the qualification criteria, which at the moment puts us out of contention. If not, we have our first Premier League of the season at Myerscough at the end of March, which I’m really looking forward to!

Lots of training is now planned especially with Sando, pre-nationals in April, so excited to be going!

 – Cara Shardlow

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