British Dressage Monthly Round-up with Daisy Jackson

British Dressage Monthly Round-up with Daisy Jackson

British Dressage – Another month packed with competitions, excited winners and qualifications to the National Championships. Among the winners was Sparsholt Elementary Open Regional Champion Claire Randall, bagging herself and her own Undaunted a ticket to the Nationals which will be held at Hartpury College. Claire and ‘Super ted’ gained 72.66%! After their win I got the chance to catch up with Claire and talk a little more about their journey together and how buying Ted came about…

‘‘Undaunted ‘Super ted ‘ at home is a rising 8 year old bay gelding. He was bred by Suzy Mainprice of Morgan Equine out of one of her foundation mares by Pascal and he is by a coloured showjumping bred stallion called Udo Van Padhuis. My trainer, Diane Thurman Baker

bought him as a 2-year-old for her daughters Sam and Jo but he didn’t grow big enough for them, so I nagged her until she let me buy him as a five-year-old! He did six regional classes this time from Novice to Advanced Medium music and was top ten in all six including his win and 4th in the Novice music. He went to the Elementary Open Nationals last year on a wild card and was 5th at Medium in the Home International including a win on day one of the team competitions. He scores consistently well into the 70’s with our personal best being 78% in Medium Open Music. We are now working on changes and hoping to start in small tour by the end of this year and hopefully will do Medium Regionals and Advanced Medium Area Festivals. He is the best horse to ride and makes me smile every day – the only problem is he has spoilt me for all other horses! Huge thanks to Diane as we couldn’t do it without her – she is inspirational! I am an amateur and am a solicitor in London three days a week although I am also training to be a judge and bringing on my young horses. Even my small tour mare is pregnant to Ted’s dad (as I love him so much)’’

Another fantastically ridden test, leading to a regional title was performed by Rose Hugh Smith on her own Florentino, scoring 68.82% in the Advanced Medium Restricted at Addington. Rose also did well on her young horse Dutch Discovery. Rose gives us a little insight into their journey together…

‘‘I’ve had Florentino (Flo) for just over two and a half years; he is an 11-year-old Oldenburg by Florencio. We managed to stumble upon him on the British Dressage website by pure coincidence and decided to go try him. Since then he has been going from strength to strength exceeding every expectation we had of him. So far in our career together he has won numerous titles including U25 Medium Champion, U25 Advanced Medium Reserve Champion and Home International Junior Champion. When Flo first arrived he was incredibly weak behind and we had to spend month’s taking him back to basics and building muscle. I am incredibly proud of all we have done together being members of both EXCEL and of GB teams. My aim for this year to compete in a Prix St George near the end of the season as at home we are already training canter pirouettes and three-time changes”.

Rose is sponsored by Wolds Exclusive Bling

Holly Kerslake, who is trained by Charlotte Dujardin, was also a Regional Champion in the Medium Restricted at Summerhouse with 68.64%

Holly, now 12 started competing at FEI level with Doctor Little in 2015 after being selected for the Pony Progress Squad the previous September. They had a great first year together with several wins and places and their first international call up in July at Hickstead.

This year they started the season well with a win at Addington High profile show in the PFEI Individual test. Doctor Little aka Doci is 17 and has been a great school master for Holly who is hoping to be selected for another international this year.

Holly also rides Platinum Ashley Gold aka Poppy who is owned by Louise Davies, an eight-year-old pure New Forest mare who rode her debut BD competition at the end of last year. So far she has been first or second every time out at Medium level and was 2nd in her first FEI test at the end of last year, plans are to continue at FEI level.

Holly has just added a very special new member to the team in the form of seven-year-old Welsh Cob stallion Valhallas Zorro who is thought to be one of the best young dressage ponies in Europe and has been very successfully competing with Anne-Mette Lyager for almost two years. He has now been sold to the Kerslake family in Devon.  Zorro was bred by Karen B. Olsen and Carl Trock in Denmark; they will keep a share of the stallion, who will also continue his career as a successful sire of champion stock. 

Holly is sponsored by TopSpec, Julie Green, Lyn’s Bling Browbands and Wolds Exclusive Bling

For more news on Daisy Jackson and her team of young dressage horses please visit djdressage.co.uk

Suzanne Ashton

Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.