Convention countdown...

Tomorrow (Saturday 10 November) marks the start of our two week countdown to this year’s British Dressage National Convention, 24 – 25 November at Hartpury College in Gloucestershire. Held in association with Harrison Clark Rickerby, this year’s showcase training event will look at dressage with ’20:20 vision’ and our three international rider hosts have now confirmed their demo pupils and horses.

2018 WEG team bronze medallist Emile Faurie will be looking at both ends of the dressage spectrum in his sessions each day. He’ll start with Novice and the horse in the spotlight will be five year old Iwan (Charmeur x Sir Oldenburg), owned by Sara Lucas and ridden by Nikki Barker and then progress through Elementary and Medium. It’ll be the turn of Emile’s stable jockey, Tom Goode to ride two exciting prospects, five year old Sakira (San Amour x Rubinstein), owned by Eva Lin Black and then Langley (L’Espoir x Rimini), owned by Hof Kasselmann who Tom piloted to second place in this year’s TopSpec Medium Gold Championships.

At the end of each day, we finish with Grand Prix. Saturday will focus on the straight test and how the level has evolved and Emile will be using Tom and Dior III, a ten year old owned by Sam Geddes and himself, to demonstrate. On Sunday, the focus turns to Freestyle and the test which gave rise to the ‘dancing horses’ and Emile will be in the saddle himself for this session with his latest star, Hof Kasslemann’s Café’s Caletta (Café au Lait x Calato) who is on the verge of making her competitive debut at Grand Prix. This is a horse Emile has high hopes for so the Convention is a great place to witness a star in the making and the techniques used by one of the world’s top producers.

Gareth Hughes, himself a European and WEG team medallist, will look at the steps towards Grand Prix, Advanced Medium and Small Tour, Prix St Georges and Inter I. Gareth has enlisted the help of wife Rebecca and Alison Croft’s Danone II sired Tantoni Dallagio and having competed at the Nationals in both the Elementary and Medium Championships this September, the ten year old will be out campaigning at Advanced Medium this winter. Gareth takes to the saddle for Inter I where he’ll ride KK Dominant, a nine year old Diamond Hit x Rubin Royal stallion he’s started riding for the Kroll family and they’re quickly making a mark together. And for Inter I, he’s going to give us all a treat by bringing the expressive mare, Classic Briolinca, owned by the Hughes with Julia Hornig. 

On Saturday there will be a dedicated para dressage session and we’re delighted to have secured the FEI world number on ranked rider and double WEG gold medallist Sophie Wells to explain all. As a rider, she’s hit the top and managed to stay there with an exciting string of home produced horses but she’s making a name for herself as a highly respected trainer too.
Star pupils Izzy Palmer (Grade IV) and Georgia Wilson (Grade II), members of the World Class Podium Potential and Excel Talent programmes respectively, will be there to help Sophie explain the requirements for both riders and trainers to help para riders discover their ability and achieve their potential.

Woven throughout all the sessions will be expert opinion form FEI 4* judge Peter Storr and Dr Rachel Murray who will give their view on how their roles impact on the athletes, both equine and human and the part that each team component; rider, trainer, judge and support plays into getting a combination to their peak performance levels in training and in the arena. 
A coach may explain how to ride a movement, a judge will explain what’s needed to make a six for that movement turn into a seven while sport science support will ensure that repetition of that movement won’t be harmful to the horse. All components combining for a happy, healthy athlete.

With such a world class line up of presenters, riders and horse power, it promises to be an inspiring and thought provoking weekend, whatever your interest in dressage.

We're delighted to offer BD and BHS members the opportunity to buy discounted tickets for this year's event, take a look at the list below to choose your ticket. As a special 20th anniversary gift, we're also offering all U25s an amazing 20% discount, to make the most of this please call the office on 02476 698833 to verify age and book over the phone.

Ticket prices:

Day ticket BD Member - £50
Weekend ticket BD Member - £80

Day ticket BHS Member - £52
Weekend ticket BHS Member - £84

Day ticket non Member - £55
Weekend ticket non Member - £90

Young person (U25) day ticket - £40 
Young person (U25) weekend ticket - £72

To get your tickets head to the BD online ticket page. Alternatively, you can book over the phone with our Training and Education team on 02476 698831 or 02476 698833.