News & Events

Isis wins the BRC Novice Qualifier, Longney, June 28th

Despite being reduced to three riders, our team performed magnificently yesterday to win the team dressage (25 teams competing), and to place second in the riding test team competition. This is the first time Isis has won the novice qualifier - let's hope that the weather at Lincoln is better than it was last year!

Sue Newman and the amazing 20-year-old Jacob were first to go, producing a super test for a score of 160 and 3rd place in her arena. Jill Smith and her lovely Dutch warmblood x Andalusian, Miss Marple, continued the good work with a flowing, accurate test, scoring 159 for 4th place in Arena 2. Finally, Janine Allen Robertson produced the test of the day with Millie-B-Magic to win her arena on 181. This combination recently won the Area 18 ODE qualifier for the second year running - what a versatile mare Millie is!

In the riding tests, Sue scored 110 (11th) and Jill 129 (5th) in Riding Test 6, while Janine won Riding Test 8 for the second year on 147. The winners, West Oxfordshire, contained an Isis member!

The weather was Mediterranean, the going was reasonable, and a great day was had by all!

REPORT BY SHEENA GRIERSON ON KINGS LEAZE DRESSAGE FESTIVAL AT BURROW COURT, GLOS ON MONDAY 25TH MAY, 2009

On Monday, 25th May a strong contingent of Isis Members went to the Kings Leaze Riding Club Dressage Festival held at Burrows Court, Gloucestershire. We fielded two teams : The Isis Babes – Janine Allen Robertson, Vicki Randell and Jill Smith and The Isis Belles – Lindsey Stribling, Jo White and Jenny Lithgow.
I started the day as Chauffeur and Trainer for the riders from our yard (Jo, Lindsey and Vicki) and soon had to add another ‘hat’, taking over for Hala Bentley as Chef d’Equipe as she was unable to attend with a very sick dog at home.
Janine was a last minute substitute for Catarina Eriksson whose horse was lame. Janine and her horse Milly had already had an extremely long day on the Sunday at the Area 18 Show Jumping near Malvern – being out a total of 11 hours! Her Novice 26 test was calm and fairly obedient and scored well with 65.51% finishing 5th in that class. Jenny also did that class and, having realised just before she went in that she was doing her Novice test before the Prelim and therefore was not sure she knew it property, I read her test for her, and she produced an accurate, well ridden test for 64.44% and finished 8th. Jill was just behind on 63.33%.
Lindsey and Jo contested the Prelim 12 as a warm up test, with Lindsey scoring 62.00% with an even test and Jo having a few problems with her mare’s tension and inattentiveness, scoring 51.00%
For the main team test Janine went first and produced an excellent test scoring 74.5%, getting the Isis Babes off to a good start. Lindsey had a few problems with Jackaroo, as he had spotted the sheep in a nearby paddock after the first test; this produced a less flowing test with some nice moments, but also some tension, for 57.08%. Vicki rode a very accurate test which flowed well for 67.5%, keeping the Babes score up on her first team outing. Then Jo produced a much improved test for 61.25% for the Isis Belles, also her first team ride.

With the last riders to go, Jill rode an accurate test for 65.83% and Jenny a super test for 70%, bring the Belles score right up.
So the Isis Babes won by a margin of 20 points (with a final score of 499) over the KLRC Red team and the Isis Belles were 4th with a final score of 452.
It was a great day with a friendly atmosphere and nice weather, not too wet or too hot! It was also a great result for both our teams, giving some valuable experience for riders and horses.

BRC Vaccination Regulations for Competitions

After a brief panic at the Junior Qualifier, where one parent had forgotten to bring the pony’s vaccination certificate, and the copy with the Area 18 data base was not deemed sufficient, it may be worth reminding competitors that they should always carry their horse’s passport while travelling. If you don’t like to leave the original in your vehicle, why not keep a copy on board? But don’t forget to update it each year, if you are competing with BRC!

If you want to compete in BRC teams, these are the vaccination requirements: the first two injections between 21 and 92 days apart (horses may compete after receiving these two vaccinations) followed by a third between 150 and 215 days later. Then annual boosters not more than 365 days apart, but no injection must have been given within 7 days of a competition. If you send a copy to the team manager, she will do the checking for you!

BRC WINTER TEAM DRESSAGE, SENIOR QUALIFIER

Isis fielded two teams for the competition at Hartpury on Sunday, February 22nd, but, as luck would have it, as with the juniors, each team was reduced to three. Sally-Anne’s Blake Thicket, who had gone so well at the BD Midlands Regional on Friday, was not right by Saturday evening, and, even more sadly, Tina Compton drove all that way to be told that her vaccination certificate had a missing entry and she was not allowed to compete.
Our six riders did a great job, some under more difficult conditions than others, as Arena 2 was set up facing the grandstand, right against a poster-covered wall and with an air-conditioning unit which switched on erratically. In the morning (Prelim 12), Janine Robertson (Millie-B-Magic) had a great ride in the 'easy' arena for 2nd place (72.8%), while Catarina Erikkson did a good job in the 'spooky' arena with a slightly alarmed Braveheart, placing 12th (65.6%).  Poor Lorraine Greeves had a nightmare ride in the same arena on Tom, who looked terrified and threatened to turn himself inside out - she coped really well to get through the test, and was far from last!  And he had been going so well in the warm-up.

In the afternoon (Novice 27), all three horses went really well, with Independence Day excelling in Arena 2, absolutely unfazed by its bogeymen, for 3rd place on 69.2%.  Mary Smith rode a lovely fluent test with no errors. Sarah Morgan and Small Fortune were close behind in 6th with 66.8% - impressive as it was Dibley’s first time out this year. Lochinvar looked fab with Sarah Howard, but was slightly tense - his score of 66.8% gave him 11th place in Arena 1.

Isis Angels (Janine, Catarina and Sarah Morgan) finished in 6th place, with Isis Babes (Lorraine, Mary and Sarah Howard) 17th out of the 33 teams competing. A very good result!

BRC WINTER TEAM DRESSAGE, JUNIOR QUALIFIER

The juniors enjoyed a great day out at Home Farm Equestrian Centre, Cheltenham, on January 31st, though sadly the team was reduced to three as Jessie Warner’s super little palomino, Glendale Caramel, was ill. Jessie, however, proved what a good team player she is by coming to support the others and staying for most of a long day.

The day began well with Becca Bell, aged 9, winning the Open section of the warm-up class, Prelim 10, with 70.45% on her beautiful little black Section B, Hulmewood Nightshade, and Rose Hugh-Smith, also 9, winning the non-team section of Prelim 12 with 70% on her 14hh dark brown riding pony, Rambling Fairy Magic.

In the Prelim 12 team class, Jenny Lithgow, 15, and Sky produced a lovely, forward test to win with 70.8%, beating Becca, who also rode a super test for identical marks, only on collectives.

Rose was first to go in the Novice 27 team class and her score had to count. A good accurate test produced 64.6% - but was it going to be enough? We waited with increasing nerves as the large class dragged on and some very good tests were ridden. It’s difficult to assess the likely outcome of these competitions before any of the fourth riders have competed, but it looked as though we were in with a chance if Rose placed no lower than fourth. We had intended to leave and have the result posted as the show was running late, but it was just too exciting, so all the team stayed to the very end – and, wonderfully, Isis prevailed by the shortest of heads! Rose held on to fourth place and the team finished on 7, beating Frampton Family RC ‘Passage’ by one point.

This was a real team effort – many thanks to supportive parents who transported ponies and team members in various combinations!

The final will be at Hartpury on Sunday 29th March – come and support them!