Festival Focus - Chard Equestrian
Chard Equestrian Summer Area Festival showcased all the incredible combinations that have worked extremely hard, to qualify and compete at an Area Festival this year.
Ruby Walker riding Moylough Cruz finished second in the Elementary Silver with an impressive score of 68.58%. Ruby spoke to us about her journey with ‘Cruz’ since she brought him four years ago, “Cruz is now 8 and is a full bred Irish Draught by Cappa Casanova and Moylough Cindy. We have got him to the stage he is at today thanks to my trainer Tessa Thorne. As a just backed four-year-old, I went to view him as a project horse due to loosing my previous horse in a lorry accident. Cruz had extremely big hooves to fill but has done so and beyond in the short time that I have had him.”
The combination began their dressage career together in January of 2023, they have been able to make their way up levels and are currently training at home at Advanced Medium. Ruby is planning their debut at Medium level in the near future, along the way they have never been out of the placing, at either qualifiers or the Area Festival! “He does indeed hold his own up against a lot of the dressage bred horses at events. Last summer he took the South West Prelim Champion at the South West Unaffiliated Championships at Hartpury, as well as runner up in the novice. Towards the end of the year he also took runner up in the novice MyQuest U21 championship at Arena Uk. Our last championship of 2023 was at Bury Farm for the Associated Championships where he took the Draught Prelim Bronze Win and was 4th overall in the Draught Novice Bronze.”
Not only did Ruby and Cruz have great success last year, they were received the highest percentage of any Draught horse at the Associated championships and are aiming to better that personal best later on in the year. Also competing at the Summer Regionals this year, Ruby spoke to us about what goes into getting ready for these competitions, “lots of training and preparation goes into our festivals/competing as I in-particular struggle with competition nerves and Cruz gets very overwhelmed with the warm-up atmosphere resulting in him becoming rather introvert at a competition instead of his usual extrovert at home during training.”
On the day at Chard Summer Area Festival, Ruby and Cruz’s trainer Tessa helped them warm in, “he warmed up amazingly and produced a beautiful test despite being rather tense for his usual self! I was extremely pleased with his leg yield and consistency throughout the test.” Some of their stand out highlights being, “he was forward off of my leg and listening to my body positioning throughout the asking of my aids. He took the runner up spot next to the beautiful Manny and Beth which is an achievement in its self to be just behind Beth!” Beth Phillippa Miller and Ramanos won the Elementary Silver with an amazing score of 70.15% from the three judges.
Ruby, who has recently graduated from Hartpury University with a degree in Veterinary Nursing, describes her special bond with Cruz, “this horse really owes me nothing, and I owe him the world! He is my best-friend who has coaxed me through PTSD and given me my love for horses back again. To be at the level he is currently at was a dream a year ago and he has made it a reality.” The two of them are currently collecting their qualifying scores for the Winter Area Festivals and Winter Regionals.
Maddie Caunt and Desach Cinderella were 7th in a highly contested Preliminary Silver class, receiving a great 67.08% from the three judges and only 1.8% behind the winner. Maddie told us she “really enjoys” competing in the Area Festival series. This was only the combiantions second Area Festival together, and having brought the now six-year-old mare as a foal from her breeder Nesta Owen, the pair have been on an amazing journey together.
“We started BD last October, and she also competes with my trainer Katie Carss. As well as dressage we started jumping this year and she was amazing at Pony Club Camp” Maddie explains. On the lead up to there Area Festival competition Maddie shares, “we didn't have our normal preparation as we were away at The Pony Club Nationals, where we surprisingly won the Pairs Dressage to Music and she was 12th in the Pony Club Novice Final for me. So she had a day off and then a hack, just to chill, before we headed down to Chard Equestrian.”
Having not ever competed at Chard Equestrian before, Maddie tells us how the lovely bay mare behaved on the day, “she was great and took it all in her stride. I was really pleased with our test and felt like she was really with me, she tries so hard for me always.” Looking towards the future their next aim is to qualify for the Winter Area Festivals at Prelim Silver again, and also move up to Novice Bronze level, especially aiming towards the U21 sections.
Donna explained to us why she loves competed in the Area Festival series, “it has given me the chance to ride at championships and at new venues which I have really enjoyed. I’ve been able to set and work towards goals while having fun competing and meeting new friends.”
Preparing for their Summer Area Festival, Donna and Yago have had regular lessons at home and are training at medium level, Donna explains their training consists of, “lots of variety” in order to keep it as fun as possible for Yago as he also, “loves his hacking and jumping too.” The combination don’t only turn their hoof to dressage, “while I love training dressage I also love that we get to do everything together and have a go at different disciplines.”
In the medium test Donna reflects, ”Yago’s highlight was definitely the half passes and walk pirouettes. This was really special for me as it has taken us time to work on the medium movements and I feel like the penny has dropped this season and we’ve really progressed with the higher level movements.”
“In the elementary his medium canters were his highlight, he really went for them!” Donna explains. Their partnership has grown over the last six years and while Donna enjoys doing everything with Yago, she tells us, “dressage has always been something that I wanted to have a proper go at and he’s really given me the opportunity to do that. Training him has been a slow but enjoyable process and I now feel that every day we are getting better and better as we learn together. Managing his weight has been key to keeping his fitness up.”
Donna shares with us that the lovely gelding, “has such a great personality, he’s quite cheeky but a super kind horse. He gives everything a go and is just lovely to have around.” They plan to keep training together and having fun, Donna wanted to compete in freestyle classes with him in the future. But not stopping there, Donna tells us, “if possible would like to teach him changes as I think he would really enjoy doing them. We are ambassadors for the clothing brand Mayston Equestrian which helps us feel confident and gives me a platform to show off how special Yago is. I hope we can continue working with such an exciting upcoming brand too!”