British Dressage Championships

Today’s morning off activity was a morning at Stoneleigh Park for the start of the British Dressage Championships. I have only ever been to Stoneleigh for Your Horse Live so was expecting at least some of it to be inside.. I was wrong. It was outside and very wet! My camera is pretty new so it was a new experience to try to get some good photos whilst not exposing it to the rain.

As usual I spent a lot of time by the warm up which was scarily busy at all times since both classes were warming up in the same place. You could tell some people were a bit tense about the number of other horses they were having to weave around. I have never been in a small warm up before and I know I would have felt super claustrophobic and like I couldn’t actually do anything for fear of getting in someone else’s way but I guess anyone at Nationals is used to it!

I was so pleased, although slightly surprised (which I probably shouldn’t have been) to see several coloured cobs amongst the big bay beasties – I caught some commentary about how people are calling their piebalds tobianos these days, whatever you call them, they were beautiful!

Seeing the cobs and a few other ponies made me feel good. My yard is a world where the adults all ride big bay horses and I’m like ‘I’m down here guys!’ It was good to see some diverse representation.

The other highlight was watching the great Charlotte Dujardin do her thing – she just makes it all look effortless even when her horse had a mind of its own about movements. If only I had her hands and legs (and core!)

I did have a mooch around the shops but I think that old adage of doubling the price tag when you make something horsey is actually quadruple it when you label it dressage! I’ve got a long wish list for when I’m hoping earning more in the future!

I’m gutted I could only spend the morning there as I would have loved to stay all weekend and see more but unfortunately work gets in the way!