September was certainly a busy month of dressage for us!

We attended the first ever British Dressage CHAPS associated championships at Bury Farm. It was a fantastic show and extremely well ran.
On the first day, we competed in the warm up test which was in the outdoor. We came 2nd out of 20 with 71%. I was rather surprised by the test percentage as Ruby had a few spooks at some horses in the neighbouring fields before we went in to do our test. It was then a quick dash to the indoor arena to complete our P17A championship test. I went in to ride the best test I possibly could and we did!  It was one of those days when you wish every test was like it. We scored 71.21% to come 2nd out of 29 and had whizz round in the prize giving in the evening. On the Sunday we had the novice championship, we did what I thought was a good test however got a rather disappointing score of 64.38%. It’s just one of those things and you unfortunately cannot change it.

I was then back at university for the day 18th of September, the day before we went to British Dressage National Championship which we qualified for at Summer Regionals.

The nationals were amazing and such a surreal experience. Riding in the night before in 40mph winds is something I certainly won’t forget as well as it raining all day on the Thursday. Thankfully Ruby isn’t too bothered about the weather, unless she is schooling at home!

We finished our national’s debut on 67.01%, which I’m really pleased with as all the scores were so close. The thing with nationals was it wasn’t about the score, the placing or even winning. Yes it’s nice when you do win, but it was about the journey of getting there. I’ve had Ruby from being a 3 year old and never did I think I would have achieved this, especially after coming 35th out of 35 at our first winter regionals in February 2017.
The key message to take away from this is….
‘It’s about never giving up no matter what knowing that doing your best is the only option, even if it results in failure’ – Eddie The Eagle (The Film).

We’ve so far had an extremely quiet October, due to our lorry going in for repairs, again. The weekend just gone we hired a trailer to go to the Pet Plan Area Festivals at Manor Grange, where we finished 7th in the Novice U21 Area Festival Final. Now we are on the hunt for our final 6 points towards our winter regional qualification for 2019.

I’ve also been putting my Musto BEF Sardinia BR1 Jacket to good use in this cold and wet spell of weather we have been having. I love it as it super comfortable. Plus has big enough pockets to keep both your phone and keys dry as its waterproof. It’s certainly a must have and is available at Millbry Hill.

-Victoria Turner

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