Festival Focus - Burrows Court Farm
Burrows Court Farm kicked off the Summer Area Festival season in 2024! We saw competitors set out on their journey to try and qualify for the Summer Area Festival Championships and some first time Area Festival competitors.
Katie Palmer and Headmore Braithwaite finished an impressive second place in the Prix St Georges Freestyle Bronze with a score of 63.67%. Reflecting on her time at Burrows Court Farm Summer Area Festival, Katie tells us, “we had a fantastic experience at our Summer Area Festival. We chose to go to Burrows as our PSG venue for the straight class and music class as it’s our favourite local venue and I knew it would be a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere!”
During her Area Festival journey Katie has progressed through al the levels from Novice to PSG, “I feel that the Area Festival series are suited to me and my horse as a true amateur who just loves to train my horse at my own pace whilst having lots of fun!”
Although being new to PSG level, Katie was able to use the freestyle class to her advantage and create a floor plan to suit where the two of them are at in their training. Katie explains, “I didn’t want to take too many ‘risks’ until things are more secure. Then in the future I can tweak it to gain higher marks for difficulty and hopefully show off the harder bits we are good at!” Some of the highlights of their test Katie tells us, ”were the music and choreography.”
Katie told us about the music she chose to use and how it worked well with the floorplan, “I chose a medley of songs by Two Steps From Hell. I love the dramatic orchestral music, I really think you can enhance your test with building up the music for transitions, extensions etc. I’ve also found that good cues are an essential tool to help you know when you need to be doing things! My friend put the music together for me and it’s been great to work on it together and know that she is on hand to make and changes I might require.”
Headmore Braithwaite is also known as Boris to his friends, has been owned by Katie since he was a just backed three-year-old. The now 12-year-old, is a reflection of all the hard work and love Katie has put into producing him and enjoying their dressage journey together, “it has been wonderful to have achieved all we have together knowing that I did it all! We trust each other and I know he will try his absolute best for me!”
It is an incredible achievement to qualify for the Petplan Area Festival Championships, but Katie and Boris have now qualified at Novice, Medium and Advanced medium and Katie shares she is now, “looking forward to going to compete in the PSG Freestyle in October!” Looking towards the future Katie explains, “future goals are working hard towards more PSG’s, gaining more confidence in the ring at this level, but most importantly having fun, his ears being forward and enjoying his job.”
Anna Parfit and her gorgeous Friesian, Froukje Fan ‘E Waldsicht, placed fourth in the Preliminary Silver, with a great score of 68.89% from the three judges at their first ever Summer Area Festival. Anna explains, “this was Fern and mine's first area festival so we were both incredibly nervous.”
The Area Festivals provided Anna with something to drive towards, “it was a chance to show what we could accomplish together.” Choosing to compete in the series because, I thought it was a good way to introduce amateur riders and horses like us to big competition environments2 Anna explained.
Looking back on their dressage journey together Anna shares that it has no always been easy, “Fern was incredibly green when I first bought her, it took over a year to teach her to canter! But she has a wonderful temperature and she always tries her very best so it's been a great and enjoyable training journey.” Fern use to suffer with ring nerves when Anna first started competing last year, despite the nerves the combination produced a wonderful test on the day, “I was over the moon with how she handled her first big competition.”
Some of the highlights of their test Anna tells us, “Fern was with me throughout and delivered a clean and accurate test and I'm just so incredibly proud of her.” This amazing result was also helped by Burrows Court Farm putting on an amazing event, Anna praises how “relaxed and well run” the show was, “this was great for us and I'm sure for the other first time competitors.”
The 15.3hh mare has an “amazing temperament, though she is incredibly nosey!” She also loves people and can easily be distracted, especially by photographers, Anna tells us, “she has been known to try and stop and say hello while we’ve been in a test!”
Bex Woolf and Hillgrounds Woleena are no strangers to the Area Festival series, Bex explains,
“this was our eighth season competing at the Area Festivals and we have competed at the festivals at every level from Novice to PSG.” Bex has continued to compete at the Area Festivals over the years because of the “wonderfully friendly atmosphere” she explains that this is “the main reason I love competing in them and the summer series is my favourite because of the addition of the music classes.”
The Area Festival success continued with the combination winning the Prix St Georges Freestyle Bronze, with a great score of 68.04%. Bex tells us, “our winning PSG routine is to a Disney medley, including Kung Fu Panda, Brave and Tangled. It was put together by a wonderful friend of mine, and fellow competitor, Chantelle Oliver Symonds.” Some of the highlights of the freestyle test being the bold and dramatic canter music, Bex also states she loves, “the variation in it which highlights the different elements of the PSG work and the trot music is just so fun, it makes you want to clap along. I grin the whole way through it and it seemed a huge hit with the judges.”
Looking back on working up the levels, Bex tells us, “PSG is definitely not a level that has come easily to us, so I really wasn’t sure how the day would go, but we performed our best test yet as this level.” With stand-out moments in their test being Spice’s extended canter and Bex shares she loves “our trot half pass zigzag just before the final centre line.” Delighted with the judges scores, “it was just amazing, our good friends came second too, which was so lovely” Bex explains.
Having produced the gorgeous mare herself, after purchasing her straight from the breeder, Clare Skinner as an unbacked three-year-old, Bex and Spice have an incredible partnership. “Spice is an absolute pleasure to own” Bex gushes, “our journey hasn’t been smooth - she broke her leg in 2018 and I have two small children so we’ve taken our time over the years and it’s really paid off. She is the true definition of a heart horse.”
Knowing that every moment should be treasured with these beautiful horses, Bex explains, “last year we nearly lost her and this year she has also been diagnosed with EMS so I am just enjoying every outing with her that I can as she has taught me that you just never know what’s around the corner.”