Wellington Premier League

The six year old dutch mare Cleopatra II, aka Daya, competed at Wellington Premier League competition, she was entered in the British Dressage National Six year old class. We didn't enter her because we thought she would win, because usually the horses entered in specific young horse classes are extremely flashy and extravagant movers. Daya has great paces, but isn't as obvious a winner as the other horses whose car comparison would be a flashy Ferrari.


The day of the competition didn't start well, before we loaded Daya on the horse box Judy (Daya's owner) and I went on a hack on two Milo (an advanced medium dressage horse) and his half sister Mabel. Mabel has just started her education as a dressage horse, she is four years old, and had previously been extremely keen to work. However summer is here (sort of) and the green grass is extremely lush in the field, so her work ethic has somewhat deteriorated.  She took the opportunity to be extremely naughty and rear repetitively on the road stopping the on coming traffic.

Having survived a horrendous hack we set off in the horse box with Daya. Our next set back was two hours of traffic on the M25. We were running so late that I had to tack Daya up while the horse box was moving, which is rather tricky while trying not to be squished against the walls when driving around bends.

We made it with sixteen minutes before our allotted test time, which is not an ideal amount of time to warm up for a dressage test. When you warm up you are trying to make the horse loose, relaxed and supple, so the mad dash from the lorry to the warm up ring wasn't very helpful.

Luckily Daya coped, and she produced a calm, smooth, rhythmical  test which couldn't be faulted.
Much to mine and Judy's astonishment she won! This means she has qualified for the Hickstead International Show for the finals! Just shows how a seemingly bad day can make a miraculous recovery.