Spring/Summer Newsletter 2018
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Diary dates 2018 Spring/Summer Bolesworth CDI3* 13-17 June Hartpury CDI3*CPEDI Newsletter 2018 3-8 July Carl Hester Yard Visit 12th July Bishop Burton CPEDI1-2* 23-27 July CARL HESTER YARD VISIT 2018 Aachen 18-22 July We have secured another date! 12th July. Those lucky Hickstead International enough to visit Carl and his team at his lovely yard in 26-29 July Gloucestershire last year had the wonderful opportunity Bishop Burton to see how and why Team Hester is so successful at the Pony Europeans 7-12 August highest levels - trainer, horses, riders, backup team - all Sheepgate U25 working smoothly and in unison to consolidate the UK’s Championships position at the top of the global dressage tree! 20-25 August Don’t miss out - a reservation, including a cheque, Bishop Burton Snr Home Int ensures you of a wonderful morning. (£70 for members, £80 31 Aug - 2 Sept for guests) (Photos allowed in the yard after the morning session) World Visit the BDSC website or contact Equestrian Games [email protected] Tryon, NC, USA Dressage 12-14 & 16 Sept Stoneleigh Alan & Valegro waiting to greet you all! Nationals 20-23 Sept Olympia 17-18 Dec ******************** Photography courtesy of Kevin Sparrow 1 COMMITTEE Chairman Penny Smith CHAIRMAN’S LETTER - Penny Smith Flat 4 100 Sunderland Ave. Dear Members London W91HP 0207 286 1536 A big welcome to our first newsletter of 2018. Hopefully you will be feeling much refreshed by our long awaited spring sunshine Vice Chairman Ann Dugdale after such an incredible wet, muddy and cold last few months. 01767 651904 A huge goodbye then to the ‘beast from the East!’ Treasurer BDSC is looking forward to another great year. We are again Denish Hulse sponsoring the Judges’ Convention at Bishop Burton, the Para 01953 717477 Development Day, Sheepgate Pony Championship, and the Membership Senior Home International. Jane Kendall 01444 811969 Of course we will have our marquees at Hickstead International Overseas Trips Dressage Show (overlooking the warm-up arena), and at the Lorrie Sisson Nationals (overlooking the main arenas). All are welcome to the 01992 522721 marquees to watch great dressage, have some wine and food, Hospitality and meet up with friends. We will once again be proud to be Gill Gallagher part of the Hickstead 1000 Club which raises sponsorship for Cathy Wriight & the show from within the sport. Pauline Avery Very importantly Andrea Hessay is organising another visit to Para & Northern Rep Debi Woods Carl Hester’s yard – definitely NOT to be missed. 01332 458744 Lastly I wish to thank the committee for all their hard work and Newsletter I look forward to meeting up with many of you in the next few Andrea Hessay months. Thank you for your support of the Club and please do 01527 456251 enjoy what we have to offer. For email addresses, use first name Very best wishes @bdsc.uk.com Penny Smith PS: Wishing every success to our British Dressage team at the World Championships in North Carolina in September SPRING/SUMMER NEWSLE T T E R 2 MEET TEAM HEADMORE Andrea met Sarah and Alice Oppenheimer and Dannie Morgan at the 2018 Winter Championships at Hartpury. Sarah has been with and worked with horses all her life so, inevitably, she put her daughter Alice, aged not a lot, on a horse and Alice has been riding ever since. At about ten years old, she had one of those ponies we all know (and love) who spent its time dumping her in front of jumps which turned her to the supposedly more gentle sport of dressage! At this point, Sarah was ill and her horse, Dacapo II, was ridden by Kate Smith at the Solihull Winters in the Elementary FSM whereupon Alice announced that she wanted to do the same. Through PC and local dressage, on home grown horses, Alice got the experience that has made her the international dressage rider she is today and, in particular, the one to beat in FSM. Sarah inherited a TB mare from a friend who died, and whose family requested that the mare not be ridden, so she became Headmore’s foundation mare. They put her to Dimaggio at the beginning of his career and the rest is history. Sarah acquired a second mare, also put to Dimaggio, and these days they use their own mares and, with the competition horses, embryo transfer of which they do about two a year. So the stud almost developed on its own, with no real structured plan initially, and with Grand Prix a distant dream – ten years on, GP is a reality with Alice (now 28) and Dannie scooping up their fair share of rosettes. All their young horses are for sale but if, for some reason, they don’t sell then the Headmore team produces them up through the levels. The home team, built up over several years and which includes sister Kate who very sensibly is a vet, is what keeps Headmore, its horses and riders, at the forefront of UK dressage, together with their regular trainer, Erik Thielgaard, and with input from Charlotte Dujardin whenever possible. Erik is much appreciated for his quiet, relaxed, inspirational training and they credit him with their successes over the years. Dannie (27) comes from a non-horsey background in Southampton. He started riding at a riding school, had help from David Stone from Bow Lake Equestrian and joined the Headmore team a couple of years ago, initially to help with Headmore Davina. When Alice broke her fingers, Dannie had a crash course on riding Grand Prix on Alice’s advanced horses but generally rides the young horses and is a keen event rider. His own horse, Southern Cross Braemar, aka Barry, has been very successful and is currently at PSG. Continued overleaf 3 Currently, there are five competition horses and a couple of youngsters, down from a rather too large stable of 12. Alice and Dannie had several wins at Hartpury on the 6 horses they campaigned from Novice to Advanced Medium so 2018 is about consolidating the younger horses’ experience and Headmore Wimoweh in her debut at Grand Prix. Team Headmore epitomises the very true saying ‘the more I practice the luckier I get’. ************************************************************************************************* BDSC TROPHIES - The winner of the Betty Donkin Trophy, awarded annually to the highest placed rider in the FEI Junior Team Test, was Maddy Whelan. (left), who rode Sandy Phillip’s Diamond Design. The BDSC Pony Trophy was awarded to Annabelle Pidgley; this trophy is awarded to the pony rider who, in the Selectors’ opinion, produced the best performances at Premier League shows during the year. Lorrie Sisson, representing BDSC, presented both trophies. ************************************************************************************************* OBITUARIES It is with great sadness that we report on the demise of the following friends and colleagues from the world of equestrian sport, all well respected and greatly missed Our thoughts are with their families and friends. Cynthia Llewellen Palmer; Stewart Hastie; Helen Webber; Lynne Baldwin; Lindsay Ryan; Briget Powell and Mike Tucker. 4 MEET SUZANNA HEXT & THE HUTTON FAMILY’S ABIRA On the day of the visit to Talland to meet Suzanna, she had just witnessed one of Talland’s staff riders have a horrible fall very reminiscent of the accident she had in 2012, which changed the course of her life. Suzanna had been a successful event rider, with much potential in her chosen sport, although dressage was not top of her list of likes. Breaking in a young horse, he reared up over backwards, landed on her, rolled over twice and crushed just about everything crushable. She spent months in the John Radcliffe, in the major trauma and neuro units and, with the help of a ’horsey’ physio, started the slow journey back. Within 2 years of the accident, she was on board an RDA horse in Cornwall, Buster, who helped Suzanna recover her love of riding, even though to start with she could barely cope with riding a circle! She still has major issues but much less so when she’s on a horse. Pammy Hutton has long trained Suzanna, knows her well from her time at Cirencester Agricultural College when she rode at Talland, and suggested she ride Amo, not the easiest mare but very rewarding. When a horse that Suzanna was scheduled to compete bucked someone else off, Abira was offered as the substitute and, quietly over several rides and without there being a definitive moment, a partnership was born. Abira competed with the four Huttons, (Pammy, Charlie, Pippa and Abi), he has 5 Europeans, 3 National championships and countless others successes in Juniors, Young Riders and, of course, Paras, to his credit - he is a legend and, at 18 years old, owes no-one anything. He’s a shiverer, can’t be shod behind and he is a double colic survivor; he has the heart of a lion and gives total trust and concen-tration between horse and rider. When Suzanna needs to make a bad day better, she rides Abira. 3 Gold medals from the Europeans in 2017 cemented Suzanna’s claim to the top level but she admits that Abira did it all for her on the third day, as she had nothing left to give, so he literally won her that medal. Plans for 2018 will centre firmly on Abira’s welfare and how much more it is fair to ask of him; meanwhile Suzanna has younger horses coming through and, on her first outing at Grade II (having been at Grade III) previously, she won her class. PS - if you can spot excess admiration for Abira, it is because Andrea rode him once and has never forgotten the amazing feel he gave her! Abira & Suzanna at WEG in Gothenburg, 2017 5 Isobel Wessels Rider, trainer, judge in that order! Currently riding Chagall successfully at Grand Prix, she has been the dressage coach for the New Zealand Event team since 2011 and, of course, she officiates at the top level internationally as a dressage judge.