Festival Focus - Sparsholt College
Our equine stars and superb riders shone at the penultimate Summer Area Festival of 2024 at Sparsholt College.
Jade Philbin and her lovely chestnut gelding Star Cruising, won the Elementary Freestyle Bronze, with an amazing score of 71.54%. Looking back on their day, Jade reflects on the journey it took for them to get there, “we had possibly the worst run up to our Area Festivals! Rusty is a bit of a calamity and mid-July saw him cut his knee open quite severely and required a number of stitches and daily bandaging.”
Jade shared her gratitude towards those who helped the two of them reach the Area Festival, “I wouldn’t have been able to trot down the centre line if it wasn’t for Michael De Cozar (Bell Equine Vets) and Beatrice Coombes from North Downs Animal Therapy (who used a K-Laser to promote healing). Rusty was back in work for almost two weeks before we headed to Sparsholt.” Not forgetting Jade’s trainer Gail Ridgewell, for “all her rehab work and emotional support in getting Rusty back to where we belong!”
On the day Jade describes some of the highlights of the competition was “just being able to go, , with Rusty’s injury I thought we would be out of action for a very long time so I was beyond grateful to be able to dance with my bestie.” Elementary level is still fairly new for the combination Jade explains, we still struggle with a few of the required movements but I smiled the whole way and just tried to enjoy being there with him.”
Jade describes Rusty as being at “dainty moving horse” and this inspired her choice of music for their freestyle test, “I wanted something fun and poppy but nothing too.” Choosing to go with a “Bridgeton-esque” style of music. Jade choosing to work with Equidance again after having previously creating a Novice freestyle with them, “a massive thank you also has to be extended to Leanne Wall for help in designing my floorplan, none of this would be possible without my support team.”
Despite the uncertainty of whether they would even make it to compete at the Summer Area Festival, Jade and Rusty came away with the win, “when my friend told me my score there were definitely tears and a lot of anxious waiting until the final scores were in. I really couldn’t (and still can’t) quite believe it!”
“Rusty is first and foremost my world” Jade tells us, it’s just a bonus he’s pretty good at all this dressage stuff I like to do! I’ve owned him for just over two years and in that time, we have had a lot of success at Area Festivals, Associated Championships and most recently Senior Home Nations. I can’t thank Sharon Walker, my DO, enough for the support she puts behind us.”
One of Jade’s favourite things about competing in the Area Festival series is “being able to see my progress throughout the sixth months that lead up to the big event. I’ve been lucky enough to be a member of a number of BD teams which has meant the ‘day to day’ competition has been a much more social event and being able to support and receive support from past and present teamies has been such a confidence building experience for me.”
Victoria Homden and Ollie had a fabulous Area Festival at Sparsholt College, finishing fifth in the Advanced Medium Silver with 65.21%. Then also winning the Advanced Medium Silver Freestyle, with an incredible score of 69.50%.
Sharing her Area Festival experience with us Victoria describes how it feels to compete and why she enjoys the championship series, “the reason why I like competing in the Area Festival series is the fact it gives me an opportunity that I would never believe I could have had and I like the fact that if gives you goals to achieve. You get fantastic comments which you can then take away and work with to improve your performance and way of going and the levels are so inviting it gives you a fair chance.”
During the build up to Sparsholt College Area Festival, Victoria had “countless lessons” with her fantastic trainer Katherine Lewis, “who’s is truly an inspiration and makes me feel like I can achieve anything.” Victoria tells us the preparation for Ollie is “insane” and “even though he’s a Welsh cross he likes the high maintenance of a warmblood keeping that coat and mane in check and several washes of the legs in preparation for the day, Using lots of clean rugs and leg wraps.”
“The biggest highlight of my test was Ollie’s way of going, he always tries his hardest and forgives me when I make mistakes, as I have never ridden to this level before” Victoria tells us. The freestyle music that Victoria chose was meaningful, she explains, “it was dedicated to trainer Katherine, who just over a year ago was diagnosed with cancer and despite all the odd became cancer free but when we were doing the floor plan and music it was touch and go if she was going to be ok. All the music are Katherine’s favourite songs, and it was an honour to dance in the area with Ollie and with Gaynor Colbourn’s fantastic musical skills linking all the songs together.”
One of Victoria’s favourite moments from the Area Festival was riding through the lorry park to enter the warmup arena, “everyone commenting how nice it is to see a cob type strutting his stuff, it gives me such a wonderful feeling which can hopefully inspire others to try an alternative horse to dressage.”
Ollie is a homebred and has been on an amazing journey with Victoria, “I was really in to showing and that was going to be my main aim but Katherine inspired me to try dressage and I never thought I would be so proud of how far we have both come” Victoria explains. Ollie is known for being a “cheeky chap” named after Olly Murs, and lives up to his namesake, with his “cheeky little antics at home.” Victoria tells us, “the one thing I can always rely on is him giving me a fantastic ride and I trust him with my life.”
Victoria plans on carrying on “pushing ourselves” to do as much as the two of them can do together, “we are both learning together and want to be a massive inspiration to everyone.”