Festival Focus - Rockrose Equestrian
Rockrose Equestrian was our second Summer Area Festival to hold Freestyle Dressage to Music classes, and it did not disappoint! Congratulations to all of our competitors who rode down the centre line!
Grace Smith and Mochaccino II took the win in the Novice Freestyle Silver at Rockrose Summer Area Festival with an impressive score of 70.65%. The pair also finished 11th in the Novice Silver class, with 66.25% in a closely fought class of 21 competitors.
Enjoying her experience at the Area Festival, Grace tells us, “we loved the atmosphere, it was happy and friendly! It was nice to meet up with old friends and make new!” Having competed in the Area Festival series the past few years Grace explains, “I choose to do Area Festivals as it has the championship feeling with the added bonus of having the opportunity to qualify for the finals!”
On the day some of the winning test impressed all three of the judges, “the highlights of our freestyle was the whole test!” Grace tells us, “Boysie absolutely loves his music as he dances through his test (safe to say he knows the floor plan probably too well!)” Grace was inspired after going to see the Lion King in London , “I loved the music so decided to give it a try originally at Prelim but then decided to try at Novice and Boysie loved it!”
Grace met Boysie when she was only eight-years-old, “his owner at the time, who is a good friend and now trainer, Steph Robson encourage me to go ride him. Mum was very reluctant as 14hh was much bigger than ponies I had ridden previously and with me being very weak as undergoing chemotherapy.” However the wonderful gelding looked after Grace, “mum gave in and our journey together began. The rest they say is history!”
On their journey together Grace and Boysie have been to National Championships at BRC and placed at the Area Festival Championships previously and at 21-years-young, Boysie is showing now signs of stopping, Grace describes him as “awesome.”
Sophie Issacs and Donaigo Ace did the impressive double at Rockrose Equestrian Summer Area Festival, winning their Medium Bronze class with an impressive score of 68.48% and also winning their Medium Bronze Freestyle class with another impressive score of 70.50% from the three judges.
Sophie spoke to us about her experience at the Summer Area Festival, “my mum and I had a lovely time up at the Rockrose. It’s such a beautiful place to be and the weather was very kind to us - we sleep in our horse trailer so it plays a big part.” Sophie travelled to Rockrose last year for their 2023 Summer Area Festival, “it quickly became a firm favourite of ours which we agreed we would return to.” Having to juggle her freelance riding, eventing and BD Youth activities, Sophie tells us that Rockrose was fortunately one of the Area Festival dates she was able to attend, and it was “a scenic and worthwhile journey up from South Northumberland. Everyone there is always so friendly and both times we’ve been we have got talking to new people and made new friends.”
Competing at the Area Festivals was the right choice Sophie explains, “I believe it’s the ideal framework for amateur or less experienced riders and horses to get involved in the sport and be able to experience the championship experience without it getting too serious. I had only made the step up the medium at the start of June and managed to get qualified on minimal scores so with little mileage at the level behind us we just planned to go for the experience.”
On the day the judges were impressed by both of Sophie’s tests, “it would be so tricky to choose highlights from my tests! To be quite honest, just sitting on this horse makes me smile, it is simply a joy to be riding at this level on a horse I’ve produced myself.” Sophie tells us that the unmatched feeling was only made better by riding the “smoothest medium test we’d produced as he can be quite spooky. I do enjoy riding the half passed and the medium paces though!”
Competing in the freestyle classes only adds more enjoyment between the white boards, “I think the music definitely makes my freestyle what it is.” Their music is a medley of all Big Band music, Sophie tells us, as somebody quite musical myself, I’m very drawn to something with a good beat and a feel good vibe that makes me want to get up and start dancing myself, and I think this sort of music really suits my horse too.”
Talking about the lovely Hugo, as he is known at home, Sophie tells us, “he originally belonged to one of my freelance customers who called me and asked if I could bring him back into work for them towards the end of 2021. I instantly fell in love with him, by March 2022 the decision had been made to sell him and the rest was history.” Their journey together starting from there, the eight-year-old gelding Sophie describes as at the time still being a, “wobbly prelim/novice level horse who hadn’t yet been to any competitions” but “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him and produce him up the levels whilst learning myself - before buying him I was an experienced rider but hadn’t had the horse power to compete or really train above novice level. It was very clear even back then that he had a lot of potential and I’m excited to see how far we can get up the levels in the future.”
Hugo is proving to be a once in a lifetime horse, “already he has brought me so many opportunities including being involved and competing with the youth squad and being selected for the national academy this year. He has definitely been the horse to give me the dressage bug and I owe him so much already.” Heading to Rockrose with the expectation of only giving herself and Hugo more experience at that level, and coming away with two sashes has given Sophie a huge confidence boost. “A top 10 would’ve just been nice, it made me realise the work I put in has paid off, and as someone hugely critical of myself helped me to believe that I can!”
Anna Robinson and her beautiful bay gelding, Jolly Good Fellow finished 5th in the Novice Bronze Freestyle at Rockrose Equestrian, with an impressive 68.70% from the three judges. Anna told us about her ‘brilliant’ experience at Rockrose Equestrian, “the sun was shining, the venue at Rockrose was dressed beautifully, the staff and team were friendly and helpful, and there were some amazing horse and rider combinations to watch & ride alongside, what more could you ask for?” The combination based in Northumberland, trains with BD List 1 Judge Chrissie Havis, also finished a respectable 15th place in a highly contested Novice Bronze class.
The Area Festivals are known for being a friendly competing space, with riders encouraging one another, and for Anna it lived up to the expectations, “I always find the atmosphere at area festivals really welcoming, despite it being a major event - Rockrose certainly had the typical buzz of a bigger competition, but because we’ve all worked so hard to qualify for it, everyone was genuinely excited to ride and support each other!”
With a vast variety of competition opportunities provided by British Dressage, to riders of all levels, if you are looking to compete in a championships series, it can be hard to know which would suit you and your horse. Anna explains to us her choice to compete in the UK’s biggest grassroot dressage championship, “I chose to compete in the Area Festival series as I’m a total grassroots amateur rider and it’s the perfect way to get a feel of a bigger and buzzier competition and it’s brilliant riding alongside other combinations who are in the same boat. Owning and competing a horse is tough - financially, as well as being a juggle around full time work, so it’s great to see other likeminded amateur riders out achieving their goals, just like me and Roo.”
Looking back on her Novice freestyle test Anna spoke to us about the highlights on the day, “it was our first ever freestyle at an area festival! We had only ridden in two classes before that (to get our qualifying scores), so the whole experience was really exciting! I’ve always wanted to do dressage to music and so the fact it’s actually happening is brilliant.” Telling us about her music and why she chose it, Anna explains, “my music means a lot to me and it’s a privilege to dance along to it! It is a medley of Lindsey Stirling pieces and I chose the tracks because I absolutely love them. They match our personalities brilliantly, there are some classical parts and then other parts with a bit of a dance beat. The music was created by Ros Kay Freestyle designs, she perfectly captured my requests and did a great job of mixing in some uplifting and emotional walk music, setting us up beautifully ahead of the canter beat kicking in.”
Competition in the freestyle classes provides the opportunity to do something totally different, Anna tells us, you can start with a blank canvas and mould a floorplan to fit you and your horse. It is important that, “each piece of music tells a story and it’s is a truly emotive experience dancing through that together with your horse.” Anna and Roo’s dressage journey so far has consisted of really brilliant ‘highs’ and some gutting ‘lows’. After making their debut in 2022, in less than a year the pair had qualified for the Area Festival Championships, Anna tells us, “at that point in time, I had only owned Roo for approximately 10 months, so the whole experience of finishing 11th at a national championships was incredible! Shortly after, Roo sustained an unfortunate injury which essentially wrote off the entire 2023 season. 2024 is our ‘comeback’ year and we’ve approached it with a lot of motivation and drive — as well as an ethos of making each moment count and never taking the feeling of dancing down the centre line for granted.”
This mindset is what made the combinations 2024 Summer Area Festival experience even more meaningful, “Roo is my first ever horse and, before me, he hadn’t done any affiliated dressage before. We are both absolutely loving the whole process of immersing ourselves in the ‘dressage world’ and giving everything a go! After working in the NHS during the pandemic, and after his injury, we make every effort to enjoy the whole process of training and competing — it’s such a privilege to dance down the centre line at an area festival but, to me, the partnership and trust that you build with your horse in the run up to the event is something truly special.”