BCA

BCA was another busy event for Team DE. With Big Blue, Kate, Lauren and Dassett Jack away at Bramham, it was quite a logistical feat getting 8 horses all in the right place at the right time, but we managed it!! (Which if you look back over some of our previous blogs, you will see that hasn’t always been the case!)

Saturday: Thankfully the rather ominous torrential downpour that greeted us at DE HQ at 4.30am on Saturday morning, subsided before our days competing started with CSF Dassett Decoy trotting down the centre line at 8.00am.

Flipper was the first of Amelia’s 3 rides in the Novice and started the day off well with a personal best of 30 in the dressage, an unlucky pole SJ and a very confident clear inside the time cross country. This young horse is going from strength to strength and deserved every bit of his 9th rosette for this very polished performance.

Next came Dassett Code, a horse previously ridden by Craig, but due to scheduling, Amelia will be taking over the reins for the next few events. We couldn’t have been more pleased with this new combination looking very happy together bringing home another clear cross country, inside the time and narrowly missing out on another top 10 finish for Amelia.

Finally came Boleybawn Dassett Cruise. Now, Joey’s head is seriously in danger of getting too big for his bridle as he added another double clear to his collection, finishing on his best dressage mark to date and clinching 4th spot in his section…fair to say he “Joeyed it’!!!

Meanwhile, Alice Midmer and her own FWS Dassett Clover absolutely nailed their day out with a very stylish double clear just adding a few time faults to their dressage mark. Smiles all round for Team Midmer and lots of pats and polos for Al!

Hayley also had Dassett Diamond on the truck, who after scoring the best and only sub 30 dressage mark of the day, had a bit of a sleepy moment at the first SJ resulting in 4 faults, for an otherwise perfect round. Very annoying, as this cost Hayley a placing, but a confident and educational cross country round put the smile back on her face!!

With ‘Steve the super trucker’ already on his way back to DE HQ in Andrea Burdett’s Mini Blue (her little two horse lorry she kindly let’s us use), Rio was quick to get back on the road to ready himself for day 2.

Craig made the trip, this time piloting Jeff and Jane Boon’s Caramba Z to a polished double clear in the BE100 for 6th place. He also had Dassett Empire on board contesting his final BE100 before upgrading next week. Unfortunately, the dressage judge didn’t agree with Chris (Craig’s mum) and Craig’s assessment of Toby’s test being his “best performance yet”. But never mind, a solid double clear left them feeling ready for the upgrade even without a rosette!

Dassett Rock Star was Amelia’s only ride on Sunday and they made little work of the day’s test performing very well to finish the day on 28.3 In a very hot section leaving them in everybody’s favourite place, 11th!! No prizes for Rocky today, but it’s hard not to be thrilled with this young horse’s performance, as he continues to grow in all 3 phases.

Massive thanks as always must go to the whole team for ensuring the weekend went without a hitch.  Everyone at Team DE has a vital role to play from parents to support staff but non more so in this instance than Lorry Driver Steve…… without him Sue and Hayley wouldn’t have had their cheesy chips!!