BRITISH YOUNG HORSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

11th July 2007

The British Young Horse Championships this year where held at Addington Manor. This is the first of our Summer Championship Shows.

We took 3 horses, Aspen Grove Duvie to compete in the National 6yr old Championship and Sandman and Ramazzottie to compete in the Young Horse PSG.

The day started out great, Both Sandman and Ramazzottie went really well in the PSG.(You do a PSG test to qualify for the final that night, where you then ride a PSG Kur and the 2 tests are averaged to get your final score.) We finished 1st and 2nd in the qualifier, with Sandman on 72% and Ramazzottie on 70%.

Next it was Duvie's turn. He did one of the best tests so far. He was really forward and wanted to perform. It was a great class and Aspen grove Duvie took the win and his first National Title 2007 Shearwater National 6yr old Champion.

Unfortunately, The evening didn't work out quite as well. From being ahead with 2 horses, we had a very good chance of taking the class, but things don't always work out as you hope!

Ramazzottie worked in well, but in the test felt very tired. He was too much onto my hand and even though there where no big mistakes there where a few little technical errors. He still did well and finished 3rd in the music and 3rd overall.

Sandman started really well, the trot work felt great and he was heading for another title, when, well I'm not sure, I think he got his tongue over the bit, because as we started the canter work something didn't feel right. We got to the first pirouette and I decided to retire. He has been going so well and if something wasn't right I didn't want to push him through the test. The marks as it turns out up till that point put Sandman as the winner. Nice to know he was going well but for me the right decision on the night was to retire.

Source: Aspen Grove Dressage