Festival Focus - Little Mill
Little Mill Equestrian Area Festival was full of spirit and encouragement between competitors. Our competitors showed incredible harmony with their dancing partners and a great taste in music!
Megan Bevan and Shanna Larry did the double at Little Mill Equestrian Summer Area Festival,
“we were lucky enough to win both the Prelim FSM bronze and Novice FSM bronze” on their debut Freestyle Area Festival classes. The combination received two impressive scores of 68.42% and 67.22% from the judges.
Megan shared part of her journey with us, “I’ve loved showing the joys of freestyle to music and encouraging other riders to have a go.” Explaining that the Area Festivals have “such a lovely relaxed, supportive atmosphere that makes competing really enjoyable.” Not only have the two of them tried something new with the freestyle tests but also they have stepped up a level, “the flexibility of freestyle allowed us to build up confidence in stepping up to Novice level this season with the help of regular training with BD Wales coach Sally Frost.”
Reflecting on how the winning tests went on the day, Megan tells us that the stand out moments were, “how well the music highlighted movements especially as my floorplan includes a lot of curving lines.” Giving us an insight into the music used Megan explains, “Larry’s novice music is James Bond themed featuring lots of their theme songs, we chose it due to Larry’s personality, his rugged good looks and the strong powerful music.” Whist showcasing Larry’s inner Bond in the novice, Megan decided to choose something the complete opposite for the Prelim, “I wanted fun music that was a crowd pleaser and something that everyone could sing along to. Equidance did a fantastic job creating a mash up of T-Rex and Hot Chocolate.”
The 17-year-old Connemara gelding was bred by Seamus Keady and is owned by Megan’s mum Claire Bevan who let her steal her pony to dance on. Megan tells us, “Larry has a heart of gold, always giving me 110%, holding my hand, giving me confidence and just loves an audience. He always seems to know when it’s a big occasion, just seems to shine and I always feel like we are a team.” The little pony with a huge personality, “always makes me and mum laugh when he power walks out the arena after our tests for his post test treat from mum and pat.”
Already looking ahead to the rest of the year, “we are looking forward to starting our Winter Area Festival qualification at prelim and novice, training hard and enjoy our hacking ready to start the next music season in 2025.”
Evie Hall and her own Carter PSH, had incredible success at their Area Festival, with two amazing scores from the judges, the combination won the Preliminary Silver with 70.90% and the Novice Bronze with 69.72%. Not knowing what to expect from her first ever Area Festival, Evie tells us, “I really enjoyed the day, I can honestly say that all the competitors and judges were so supportive, they were genuinely happy that I had won.”
Still in the early stages of their dressage journey together, Evie explains why she chose to compete in the Area Festival series, “as we are just starting to build our dressage partnership I wanted to be in an environment where it was going to be competitive, but at the same time relaxed and non-judgemental.” Reflecting on their test Evie tells us, “I think the highlights for both of my tests were his halts and centre line scores, for the one of the tests I received a 9 from the judges.”
Leaving the showground with two sashes and also being the highest place U21 in both classes feels ‘amazing’ Evie not expecting this kind of result so early on in her partnership with Fozzie, “it certainly made the 3 hour drive down from the Cotswolds worth it! We are currently busy training with our coach Rob Lumb in preparation for the Area Festival Championships in October.”
Speaking on her dancing partner, “Fozzie isn’t always easy to train, two days before the Area Festival he was bucking and bronking across an open field at a Pony club dressage event, He isn’t the most confident so needs lots of praise and encouragement to let him know he’s doing the right thing. He loves lots of attention and human hugs and is so gentle.”
Evie brought Fozzie last summer, with the intention of furthering her show jumping career, however after competing for a few months it became clear that although Fozzie loves jumping at home, he couldn’t cope with the pressure of jumping competitively. “I didn’t want to make him do something he wasn’t happy doing so I made the decision to take him to a few unaffiliated dressage competitions which he seemed to enjoy. As I wanted us both to progress up the levels, I joined BD and taking part in the Area Festival competition pathway seemed the obvious way to do this. Our goal is to reach medium/advanced level towards the latter part of next year.”