We had a wonderful time at the 2014 National Dressage Championships at Stoneleigh, contesting the Small Tour classes of Prix St George and Intermediaire I. Boheme Af Sulsted travelled the two hours from our Hertfordshire base and settled in brilliantly. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon to allow him time to look around and have a leg stretch in the warm up arena so that he could see the sights and get used to the atmosphere.
We were up early Thursday morning to do the arena walk before 7am and then a light workout in the warm up arena as his test time wasn’t until after 5pm. We were four or five horses from the end of a long and exceptionally high class field of horses. Despite being quite tight Boheme performed brilliantly, he couldn’t quite contain himself at the end of the collected walk and just had to show a little of the Piaffe he is saving up for his Inter II debut at the end of the year. A very respectable 67.95%
Friday saw another test at the end of the day for us, in the Inter I, a challenging test for a large horse in his first season at the level. Bo equipped himself so well, he was so much more relaxed and I at least felt I could ride him out a bit more and be a little braver. We had a blip in the second canter pirouette as a result of the rider sitting too quietly after it felt so good and a mistake at the very end of two-time changes. Sadly it was a consequence of the arena next door finishing their test to (deservedly) raptuous applause. We are firm believers all of our horses have to get used to all sounds and especially applause, but it is always difficult to allow for something unexpected like that in the middle of a test. We were over the moon with him, some expensive errors in another super high class field of horses saw him score 65.71%. Not quite enough to see us through to the Kur the following day but a fantastic result in such good company and it really bodes well for his transition to Big Tour next season.
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