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On 18th February 9 horses and 8 riders set off to Vale View to ride 18 tests! Everyone was extremely organised and what could have turned out to be quite a stressful day actually went very well – although Becky’s hands did turn blue she was so cold, but some cheesy chips soon sorted that!
Becky was first on riding Josie’s Don Angelo in the Elementary, Donald started off a little tense but settled as the test went on and scored an amazing 75.94% Josie then took over the ride for the second Elementary and again, Donald started off tense as he went in but settled and came away with another excellent score of 70.29% 
Sam also competed in the Elementarys on Royal Alliance, a lovely mare who is showing great talent. Sam did a great job on Royale as she can also get a bit tense – Sam scored 69.69% and 69.12% coming 2nd to Donald in both – very consistent
Next was Becky riding Elaine Hack’s Always Owen in the Medium – Owen was a very good boy and scored 66.9% gaining 2nd place. Gen, Owen’s normal rider then competed Owen in the second Medium class and got 64.71% which was very good considering Owen has had time off with an injury.
Moving up the levels to the Advanced Medium classes where, Sam riding Emma Blundell’s Keystone Diaz scored again very consistently 66.67% and 67.3% gaining 2nd place and equal 1st! Ryan riding Steph Willis’ Charlex Eskebjerg scored 66.33% and Eilidh riding her own Raphael Rosse scoreds 65.67% and 67.3% – well done!
Onto the Advanced class where we achieved 2nd, 3rd and 4th places with Josie riding her own Tobias with 64.71%, Grace riding her own Westminster Rapscallion (Jack!) with 64.12% and Eilidh on Rosse with 61.76%.
The final class of the day – the PSG – Grace had a really good test on Jack and scored 64.74%, Ryan was not too far behind on Charlie with 63.16%. Troy was a little more difficult but gave Josie good experience for the harder tests and scored 60.53%. Kelly also competed Kwadraat who was great warming up and enjoyed being out again but he then thought it would be quite amusing to put his tongue over the bit for the entire test, leaving Kelly pretty much a passenger and took himself around the test naughty, naughty boy! Kelly still had good fun and hopes to take him out again
On 29th January we had a trip to Yorkshire Dressage with four horses, liverys from the yard & Ike! It is a great venue for us as it only takes about half an hour to get there! It was slightly unfortunate for Kelly and her back tho as there is a lot of gravel there and Ike has sore paws so he had to be carried for some of it (all 5stone of him!) that was after he had chewed through his lovely leather lead :-/
Naughty Ike!
First up was Will Buck riding Shannondale Prophet (Ivan) in the Prelim and the Novice. Ivan’s most favourite thing is Cross Country so he finds dressage quite tedious but with time, patience and training by both Will and Becky he is really starting to show a talent for the dressage arena. Apart from a mistake in the right canter in the first test Will rode two very nice tests. We were slightly disappointed with the marking from the judge, but thats dressage!
Next in was Diane Vardey riding Thacka Playboy aka Nico. Diane bought Nico 18months ago and turned his hoofs from driving to dressage! Diane had a really good day competing in both Novice classes scoring 68.75% in the first test, and 62.58% with a slightly spooky 2nd test. But we were very impressed with both Diane and Nico
Diane & Nico!
2 horses down 2 to go – Becky was next in the Elementary on Josie’s Don Angelo or Donald as we call him! He was rather fresh on the wagon as it was the first time we had him out but he soon settled once Becky was on board. They scored an amazing 77.58% with, as you can imagine a lovely test! It was then Josies turn to ride Donald after proving what a good boy he was, so in the 2nd Elementary Josie also rode a great test and scored 72.05% – hopefully this is a sign of things to come as Josie and Donald make a wonderful combination!
Last but not least Sam Brown rode Royal Alliance in both Elementarys gaining 2 great scores of 73.79% and 67.64% (even with a slight error of course and a couple of swear words under her breath!) 
A great day was had by all – espescially by Ike!
