It was a good day for team BKRC at Chard on 6 July. After a very wet winter, what our team looked forward to most when opting to compete at the Summer Dressage Area Qualifiers was not competing in the cold, grey windy, wet days.....
Oh then the irony that our team should wake up on 6 July to 8 degrees, howling winds and pouring rain. Sigh.
All credit to our morning riders (on board from 9am) for doing battle with the weather. Those of us lucky enough to be on at the end of the day enjoyed some welcome relief from the rain as the sun came out even though the wind was still bashing us all.
And our efforts were rewarded. First up to do battle with the weather in the Intro C test was Ros Luff and Dabinett's Delegate (Dabi) who took the win comfortably on 68.70% - our first competitor for BKRC and our first member through to the final.
Second up was Junior Evie Keedwell on Thatcher's Gold riding a lovely test for 3rd place 65% and also gaining qualification for the finals - two from two so far!
Then it was over to our Prelim team - Ros & Dabi, Jayne & BamBam, Laura & Freddie Bear and Rhea & Arkansas B.
Laura and Freddie Bear stole the show with a win in the Prelim of 70.77% - becoming the third rider for BKRC through to the finals.
Jayne rode another beautiful test on BamBam scoring 68.85% pipped into 2nd place by 0.4%. Rhea (pictured) also scoring highly - 67.31% - in a very competitive section to take 7th but with closely bunched scores in the top 7. Dabi was looking very promising too at his first ever prelim test and our team secured 3rd place and a qualification to the South West and Wales Championships.
With the sun starting to make an entrance and chase off the very very dark threatening rain clouds, it was time for our Senior Open team to shine.
Smashing it with a triple win - Laura Williamson & Freddie Bear, Jayne Harman & BamBam, Kelly Logan & Freddie of the Fern and Jane Tomlison (still smashing it, just pipped to 2nd) were the next BKRC members to qualify for the championships at Lincoln.
And in amongst all that excitement, Ros and Dabi (after a 4 hour wait) and Rhea and Ron were back in the ring for the Riding Test.
Rhea and Ron absolutely blew everyone away scoring an incredible 87.5 points to take 2nd place overall. With Ros and Dabi (now riding their second ever prelim test) qualifying for Lincoln yet again!
With rosettes and qualifications mounting up, there were just two more tests to go - Kelly and Freddie riding individually at Elementary and Jane Tomlinson and Harley at Medium..... BOTH getting the qualification.
Which means it's going to be busy busy busy for Brent Knoll up at Lincoln and as a small club with limited funds, we're going to have to go on a bit of fund raising drive to help get out teams up to Lincolnshire....
Well done to all who participated. If you would like to join BKRC at the next Area event, please contact Amanda Holmes.
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