Badminton Young Horse Championship July 2013

Back in June we took Dotty to a Badminton Young Horse qualifier at Oldencraig and came second with 7.52, hence qualifying for the championships. We were ecstatic as there had been some seriously talented horses there, but Dotty performed really well without tension and scored excellent marks all round, with an 8 for her canter and 7.8 for her general impression/adherence to the Scales of Training. We had all been convinced Luke Baber-Davie’s magnificent stallion Elgar would beat us, so we were pretty shocked when we came second, with a lovely Oldencraig horse winning on 7.72, so a very close result. The top two horses qualify.

Photos from the qualifier:

 

It was certainly a very hot run up to the championships and we ended up riding Dotty late in the evenings. We had a four week plan to get her ready and the week before we went for a lesson with 

Andrew Gould at his lovely yard in Surrey, another scorching hot day with long queues on the motorway. His main message was “ride her forwards!” which we practised religiously, with Caz being my eyes on the ground for the next few days.

Security at Andrew's yard

We decided to head up to Badminton the evening before as we anticipated a three and half hour journey. Caz managed to borrow her parent’s camper van (which even has a name, Rosie! Brilliant!) so we could do a bit of glamping whilst we were there. So Stacey, Caz, another friend Julie (our good luck mascot) and myself made the long journey up there on the Monday evening. We snacked on Jaffa cakes and moaned about the heat a lot and were glad when we arrived at the yard we were staying at, about 15 minutes from the show ground. It was very picturesque and idyllic. Surprisingly Dotty wasn’t too hot and settled into her “hotel” well. It was about 8.30pm by the time we’d organised ourselves and set about looking for food. A friend of Stacey’s was there too with her groom, so the 6 of us headed off across fields and stiles with directions to the local pub. Shorts were a bad idea with all the stinging nettles! We had a lovely meal and as I was the only rider was careful to only have the one glass of wine!! Somehow we made it back across the fields in the pitch black and settled into bed with alarms set for 5.45am.

We had the arena walk first thing so we boxed Dotty over early to have a good look round the venue. It was so hot already we headed straight for the indoor school which was full of very large, very shiny and impressive looking horses. Dotty was absolutely fine and took it all in her stride. Even when a rather excitable stallion decided to perform an impressive rodeo act and dump his rider right in front of us and gallop off round the warm up field. We drove back to the yard as our test wasn't until the afternoon.

Dotty buys her breakfast in the morning :-)



It already felt like a long day by the time we headed back for our test. Dotty warmed up beautifully on the grass, lovely and forwards and not silly at all. Certainly more mature than many of the 5 year olds. They were running late and we had to wait around before our test. Lizzie Murray came out of the indoor saying how hot it was, but it wasn’t until we actually entered it that I realised just how hot! I actually felt as if I might pass out for a few minutes, it was absolutely sweltering and the air was all dusty

and hazy. The judges were Judy Harvey and Sandy Phillips and most of all I was looking forwards to hearing their comments at the end.

So I had no test planned whatsoever, unlike in the qualifier where we had the test planned down to every last detail. Andrew had thought it was better to see how she felt on the day and just ride her as if at home. I felt relatively calm as we started, but I could feel Dotty struggling with the heat and she felt a little too deep through her frame and not as willing to move  as freely forwards as usual. However she didn’t put a foot wrong, we showed off her lovely canter and medium trots, and it was just a shame the conditions didn’t allow her to go at her very best. However we had to consider she is still only 4 years old and she behaved absolutely impeccably at such a big, busy show.

Sandy Phillips was very positive with her feedback and Dotty was awarded 34.4 which would eventually put her in the middle of the field of the 50 horses which included both 4 and 5 year olds and mainly well known professional young horse producers, so a fantastic result. The judges felt that she was still a little unbalanced but that she had been produced carefully and not been rushed, and they would like to see her in the future when she had matured some more. They also said we were a lovely partnership (which seems a recurring theme with the judges, but I really cannot afford to buy her!) So we were chuffed with that. It was eventually the stunning Birdsong ridden by Sadie Smith who deservedly won, a really exciting young horse.

So thoughts about the whole experience. People often feel that the young horse classes push horses out of their comfort zone. Having competed at both the Shearwater 4 yo (which was an easy short prelim style test) and the Badminton (where you devise your own simple test) I would say that both of these are excellent starter shows for 4 year olds. Naturally the standard for the 5 and 6 year olds is proportionally higher, but I would certainly compete in the 4 year old classes again. Receiving live feedback from the judges at Badminton was great and the whole experience was a positive one. Having a great team made it run smoothly, and I actually enjoyed warming up on grass, the little hack to the school, and then riding the test in front of such knowledgable judges.

Dotty then had a well deserved week off after the show and came back the following week feeling better than ever and much more in balance, so I would say overall the whole trip had been positive for all involved. We will certainly be more aware of what to do next year if Stacey decides to keep her and we aim for the 5 year old classes.