RDA National Championships are coming up!

We were at the Regional Qualifiers for the RDA National Championships last week, and luckily there was a bit of a reprieve from the soaring temperatures.

Our alarms went off at 4.45am for us to catch the ponies from the fields. We’d been closed due to the heat, and had decided not to plait and bath the day before. We also decided to travel super early while it was still cool. 

The Qualifiers took place over three separate days this month. Carriage Driving was in Stow and we were so proud that newly qualified Frankie will go on to compete in the Championships, along with two of our drivers. And on the Show Jumping day at Diamond Centre all of our riders did themselves proud, with two going forward to compete in July.

This week was the turn of Dressage, Countryside Challenge, and Arts and Crafts, all at Diamond Centre. We took seven horses and 27 riders with an army of willing volunteers. Diamond Centre were incredibly kind to us and allocated us our own shaded area which was perfect. A shady oasis for humans and horses with hay and water so they could chill out between classes. 

We had the most wonderful day and are so proud of our ponies and people. For many of our participants this was their first ever event. And as we do not have an arena, for many of them that was a first too!  It just highlights the skills of our coaching team, getting fabulous results with the limited facilities we have. 

Just taking part in these events is a huge achievement, in a totally new environment and with new people and horses all around. But many of our participants went on to achieve personal bests.

One of our non-verbal participants actually said ‘more!’ when he finished his round as he wanted to go again!

As always, we couldn’t have done all of this without the help and support of an army of volunteers. And a special mention goes to our volunteer Joy, who made a collage with our adult participants during our weekly Wednesday afternoon sessions. They won the senior Arts and Crafts competition and we will be proudly taking the results of all that hard work to the National Championships.

Hartpury on 10-12 July here we come!

If you’d like to celebrate the achievements of our talented team, they’d like nothing better than for you to make a small donation so that we can support more participants to follow in their footsteps and hoofprints.