Dressage in England [Archive]

Lisel Dingley

08-06-2004, 09.06 am

Hello,

Well I have been to my first UK competiton with my Australian Dressage Pony. It was literally just down the road at a place called Norton Heath (population 1 huge Equestrian Centre and 10 houses). It was a Trailblazers competition (no not trail riding, it is a type of unaffiliated which is associate).

The day started with Dieta Dior (also known as Daisy) a little fine part warmblood baby (just 4 yrs, only about 1 month proper work). It was her first time out EVER being moved to where she today as a foal with her mother. The first test (prelim) went brilantly and 62.5% and 4th out of 26!!!!! the next test had a few mistakes (concentration had run out!) but still 58%. Not bad for her first comp!

Silver went in the Elementary. He got 64% in the first one and first (junior and overall) and 63% in the second and first junior and second overall (out of about 15). Comments down the bottom were - Obedient to aids and pleasing combination, such an obedient horse, trying hard to please. what a good boy!! This qualified us for the Nationals (not bad!) in August. Our camera has packed it in for the time being but we have some photos which hopefully i can put up one day....

I am going to an affiliated (official) competition tomorrow and will report back soon.

Talk again soon
Lisel Dingley
Essex
UK

PS. I have got to see Wie Weltmeyer and Emma Hindle, Gambrinus and Peter Storr, Active Walero and Nicola McGiven, Wayne Channon, Emile Faurie, Michel Assouline etc etc competeing over here, and saw the last selection in the UK for the Olympic Team which has now been decided. Have also been to Hickstead and saw the qualifier for the Derby (and yes saw THE bank! but not ridden) and where the dressage was at the Europeans which is now ummmm, nothing but the arenas!

ann

08-06-2004, 03.33 pm

Those are good results, Lisel. Congratulations.

And thanks for including the photo. You're the very first member to take advantage of that feature of the bulletin board software.

Lisel Dingley

28-06-2004, 01.37 am

We have been to heaps of comps in the last little while (affiliated) and our top scores now stand at 66% for Elementary and 65.3% for Medium. We have qualified for the Young Rider and Pony Nationals at Medium (2 scores above 62%). Our first Pony FEI is on this week end coming.

Lisel and Silver

ann

28-06-2004, 07.50 am

Ivanka

28-06-2004, 08.03 pm

WOW!! you must be so proud!
Well done....

I'd love to hear more of your adventures...

Lisel Dingley

06-07-2004, 07.06 am

We had a great time at the Premier League (equivilent to a HUGE 2 star comp) on the weekend. It was at a place called Sheepgate Equestrian in Boston (no not USA!). They had an indoor and an outdoor to work in and 3 outdoor competition arenas all wonderful surfaces. The stables were another matter though, cost a fortune, got very wet (from heavy downpours all weekend), were small, had a tarp roof which flapped non stop and these are the same ones they have at the nationals!!

Any way, we did 7 tests over 3 days. The first day was just our warm up, but we got 3rd (medium). The second day we did the Pony FEI Team test and no mistakes, very correct but no nice marks from the judge, but i was very pround of him, the youngest by far. We got 2 seconds in the elementary with 64.5% and 64.8%. On the third day again no nice marks from the Pony FEI judge but a very well done test. IN the mediums we were 3rd and 3rd and averaged 63% over the 3 medium tests, with one 65.28%. We won all but one of the Best Junior rosettes (given to the highest placed Junior in the open classes eg. elementary etc.)

Lisel

PS I have some SUPER photos of him now but they are 4MB each. I would love to put some up but they are too big. Can some one help me??? If any one would like them i can email them small to them.

ann

06-07-2004, 07.24 am

We had a great time at the Premier League (equivilent to a HUGE 2 star comp) on the weekend. It was at a place called Sheepgate Equestrian in Boston (no not USA!). ... PS I have some SUPER photos of him now but they are 4MB each. I would love to put some up but they are too big. Can some one help me??? If any one would like them i can email them small to them.

If you e-mail them to me at ann.clarkson@dressageit.com I'll reduce them in Photoshop (it's just the resolution of the digital photos that's causing the size. I'll reduce them to screen resolution for here) and then upload them for you, or return them so you can upload them here under your own user name.

Ann

Lisel Dingley

07-07-2004, 06.11 pm

Here is a photo of Silver from the weekend.

Thanks Ann for this.

Lisel

ann

07-07-2004, 10.31 pm

Here is a photo of Silver from the weekend.

Thanks Ann for this.

Lisel

That's a great photo, Lisel.

What is the surface of the arena?

Ann

Lisel Dingley

12-07-2004, 02.01 am

It is called "Equistride". Not sure of much but it was black and i think it had bits of rubber in it.

Lisel

ann

12-07-2004, 07.32 am

It is called "Equistride". Not sure of much but it was black and i think it had bits of rubber in it.

Lisel

Interesting - it seems to keep its level, and there's no dust!

Ann

Lisel Dingley

06-10-2004, 06.48 pm

Hi,

Lots has happened since a last wrote. Firstly we went to a Premier Legue at Hartpury over near the Wales border. We got 4th in a very strong Medium class beating all the ponies. We went in the Junior FEI class (our first and the only pony) and got 8th, and while we were doing our test Carl Hester (went to the Olympics) was doing a PSG in an arena 5 metres away. Then we did an Advanced Medium in a huge class, and got 58.5% which was very pleased about, and out of interest Carl won that class.

Then a break until the U21's Nationals back at Boston. We got a 9th, 10th and 11th in the FEI Junior Prelim, Indivdual and Team with an average of about 60%, and again the only pony. We ended up 11th overall (bit bit of bad luck, the prizes went to 10th overall). We ended up in the top half of the rest of the classes which almost all had 30 plus entries! It was pretty horrible weather, mud everywhere, including his whole stable, even with 3 bales of shavings! Not good with a grey horse. There are some very snobby (sorry its the only word i can think of) people there, and comments were heard "Err, why is she wearing THAT helmet?", and my Grandmother behind replies, "Because she HAS to" (and wants to by the way). With over 600 tests being ridden, a saw 2 people wearing Charles Owens but the rest in hunting caps (refered to as Beaglers).

We went straight up to Scotland for a short holiday after that. It was absolutly beautiful! We (Tia and I) went pony trekking down in Loch Ness (no Nessy). Our guide was (wait for it) from Toowoomba! Can you believe it? I rode a 'Belgium Warmblood' which we think was actually think was a very badly bred Quarter Horse!

Then another break and last weekend we did our first Advanced at Colchester just down the road. The Advanced Medium was interesting to say the least. It was in a very spooky indoor, with no (not an inch) space around the outside of the arena, and pot plants everywhere! One whole wall was glass, where the Cafe was, which you could see yourself in. And then as soon as a went in, the judge rang the bell giving me no time to work in around the arena, unlike the 3 MINUTES she gave everyone else! So, the whole test was trying to keep him going in the right direction without leaping across the arena! I held it together right until the last movement just before the turn on to the centre line, where he lept in the air and did 3 one time changes! What annoyed me even more was our end halt was worth a nine (mum even said so), but it became a 5 because of the little 'thing' just before! the jugde wrote "shows great promise for the future in changes"! The Advanced was at least 6% better (we thought, but the judge didn't), with a very calm controlled test. One little blip in the three 4 time changes, which became 3 fours and 2 threes, ask Silver why!?!

Anyway, he is progressing very fast (especially in the changes) and his pirouttes are really coming along, much better than i thought they would. He like the very collected piroutte canter, and does it any chance he gets. He is for sale on the internet now, and his ad will be in Horse and Hound (the huge weekly magazine) next week. Wow i hope he sells first go, the ad cost about $500 for a 4cm by 10cm ad, 1 picture and hardly any writing, for 1 WEEK! We think its criminal.

As soon as he sells we are coming home. We are sick of the freezing cold, mud, rain, etc etc already, and it is not even winter yet! The nights have been about 4 Degrees C and days of not much for than 16/17 Degrees. Silver has grown an amazing summer coat even though it should be a winter one, so he gets very cold. He has on a doona rug and hood, another thick doona rug, canvas rug and hood and leg warmers on at night!

I better stop before it gets any longer,
Hope it rains soon (feel free to have some of ours!),
Lisel and Silver