Summer Regional Championships: Hickstead

The first regional championship of the 2019 summer season took centre stage last week at Hickstead in West Sussex (12 – 14 July 2019).

The prestigious venue, which later this month hosts the British leg of the FEI Dressage Nations Cup™ 2019 series, welcomed many talented combinations from Prelim to Inter I, each with their eye on a place at the LeMieux National Championships at Stoneleigh in September.

The Oppenheimer family’s Headmore Stud was well represented, with Headmore-bred horses and the stud’s connections featuring highly on the winners’ roster. In class one on day one, the BackinAction Preliminary Silver, Headmore yard manager Andrea Kirby notched up the first win for the stud with her eight year old mare Headmore Dramatica (Dimaggio x Belissimo M) - pictured. Andrea and ‘Drama’, whose dam Boadicia was ridden to international Grand Prix by Alice Oppenheimer, earned 73.22% from the judging panel of Judy Hancock (E), James Rooney (C) and Jane Lavington (M).

The consistent pair has accumulated a number of wins all summer long, including a Petplan Equine Area Festival at Novice Bronze, with increasingly competitive percentage scores.

Next up for team Oppenhemer was family friend and showing producer Samantha Roberts (33) with Welsh section B stallion Moelview Prince Consort. They won the Dodson & Horrell Novice Silver scoring 70.62%. The picture-perfect liver chestnut has won showing titles at Olympia, Royal Windsor and the Royal International Horse Show, as well as Welsh Pony and Cob Society Performance Awards. Sam and ‘Chip’, who is owned by Helen Skirton, are consistent high performers in the dressage arena - a great advert for what our native ponies have to offer.

Day one was a good one too for Dannie Morgan, occasional stable jockey for Headmore. This time riding for Sara-Jane Lanning, he scored 72.16% to win the Dodson & Horrell Novice Gold with five year old gelding, Breit Fantastic.

Alice Oppenheimer herself took home two golden tickets to the LeMieux National Championships - the biggest score of the show (75.89%) with Amanda Radford’s eight year old gelding Headmore Dionysus in the Childéric Saddles Elementary Gold, then a 71.67% victory in the TopSpec Medium Gold aboard mum Sarah’s seven year old Headmore Bella Ruby. The chestnut full siblings known at home as Dillon and Ruby are both by Dimaggio and out of the stud’s foundation mare, Rubinsteena (by Rubinstein).

“What a weekend we’ve had from the team at Headmore Stud, we are so lucky to work with such amazing horses and have such a lovely team of people around us!” concluded Alice on Alice Oppenheimer Dressage.

“Thank you to Hickstead for another lovely show, they are always so horse friendly in how they run and I’m looking forward to the CDI there in a couple of weeks’ time!”

Thirty riders came forward for the Childéric Saddles Elementary Silver which proved to be a close-fought affair with the top three within just a percent of each other. Fiona Gierer, a German Bereiter based at Fairoak Grange in Berkshire, claimed the regional title with Lindsey Dawes' Keystone Rhadiant (by Rhondeo). Margaret Drewe (H), Judy Hancock (C) and Pat Green (B) rewarded them with 71.61% for the top podium spot, with Frances Morrissey and Samba Spring (71.41%), and Roberta Collyer with Fiasco II (70.83%) concluding the top three.

Fresh from his Hartpury Premier League PSG victory with San Marco, young talent Dylan Deutrom (21) impressed yet again, but this time with Matt Hicks and Sarah Warry’s Sunlit Uplands. They were unanimous winners of Sunday’s Saracen Horse Feeds Inter I Gold, bringing the show to a close with their 69.65% win. Dylan, who works as stable rider at Hicks Equestrian in Hampshire, is in his fourth year of competing the 11 year old chestnut Don Henrico son with whom he was second in the Medium Silver at last year’s NAF Five Star Winter Championships.

British Dressage thanks the team at Hickstead, plus all national class sponsors for their generous support of the summer championship series. Congratulations to all qualified riders and to those who took part.

Friday
Class 1: BackinAction Preliminary Silver
Andrea Kirby with Headmore Dramatica, 73.22%

Class 2: Dodson & Horrell Novice Silver
Sam Roberts with Moelview Prince Consort, 70.62%

Class 3: Dodson & Horrell Novice Gold
Dannie Morgan with Breit Fantastic, 72.16%

Saturday
Class 4: Childéric Saddles Elementary Silver
Fiona Gierer with Keystone Rhadiant, 71.61%

Class 5: Childéric Saddles Elementary Gold
Alice Oppenheimer with Headmore Dionysus, 75.89%

Class 6: TopSpec Medium Silver
Amy Jack with Graf Hit VH Bloemenhof, 70.68%

Sunday
Class 7: Fairfax Saddles Prix St Georges Gold
Darren Hicks with Hemisphere II, 68.64%

Class 8: Equine Construction Advanced Medium Silver
Brook Staples with Doonaveeragh O Six, 71.18%

Class 9: TopSpec Medium Gold
Alice Oppenheimer with Headmore Bella Ruby, 71.67%

Class 10: Equine Construction Advanced Medium Gold
Jessica Thompson with Fenwood, 67.94%

Class 11: Saracen Horse Feeds Intermediate I Gold
Dylan Deutrom with Sunlit Uplands, 69.65%