Area Festivals: Hope Gimson

Hope Gimson tells us about her competition tales with Traditional Gypsy Cob DeeDee!

"This is DeeDee, my eight year old traditional cob and in March 2019 we competed in our first affiliated class on a ticket! I did it for a bit of fun really, and to see how we would get on. Being on a traditional pony, I didn’t hold much hope against the big warmbloods, but we pulled it off and won our class overall!

After this we became BD members and our goal was to qualify for the Petplan Equine Area Festivals which we managed to achieve, much to my surprise! We actually got through to the second round, after placing fifth overall at the Speedgate Area Festival.

We then went on to place sixth in the second round, at Widmer EC, I was so pleased to have made it to the Area Festivals, especially as it was our first year competing with BD. I really wasn't expecting to get as far as we did!

We are now competing at Novice and have all of our points for the winter Area Festivals… which we can’t wait to attend! It’s been such an amazing journey moving up the levels and it’s so nice to have the Area Festivals to aim for and look forward to. It can be quite daunting trotting around a warm up ring on a fluffy, coloured pony amongst big, flashy warmbloods but it’s an amazing experience and it has given us the confidence that we need, we can’t wait for the 2021 season."

Whether aiming for the Petplan Equine Area Festivals, or your debut test with British Dressage, we love to hear your stories! Get in touch via social media for your chance to feature in our BD at Home news.