Autumn 2007

Hello and welcome to the Autumn edition of Dengie Club Quarterly.

Well what a summer we have all just had!

As I cast my mind back there were some definite highlights despite the weather. One that stands out was the World Paralympic Dressage Championships which took place at Hartpury College in Gloucestershire, just eight miles from Tewkesbury on the worst day of the floods. Riders came from all around the world to participate in these championships and were clearly not going to let ‘a little rain’ dampen their spirits. Their fortitude and determination as well as a bit of fancy footwork by the organisers ensured a successful ‘Worlds’ and my congratulations go to the GB team of Anne Dunham, Lee Pearson, Simon Laurens and Michelle Crunkhorn, who qualified for the Paralympic Games in Beijing next year by taking gold in the team event. Lee Pearson also won the individual title in his class as did Nicola Tustain – a fantastic result for British Paralympic dressage.

Speaking of Hartpury, I am delighted to let you know that Dengie has been asked to be an official supplier to Hartpury College in 2008 and I will be bringing you more on that in the next edition of DCQ. Those who compete in or follow show jumping may be interested to know that Hartpury will be hosting a pre-Olympia BSJA competition from 14th-16th December.

Our show jumpers qualified for next year’s Olympics by taking team bronze at the European Championships in Germany in August and another highlight was a seventh consecutive European Championships title for the British Eventing team in Italy earlier this month – congratulations to all of them from the Dengie Team and a special congratulations to Mary King on her individual silver medal.

Staying with competition, in this edition we report on Mary King’s fourth win in the British Open Championship at the Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe – what an inspiration to mums and ‘fortysomethings’ everywhere she is! – as well as the National Dressage Championships where our new mum Hannah Esberger Shepherd, sponsored by Dengie, was back in the saddle.

In our regular feature Everything Explained our head of nutrition Katie Williams explores some of the confusion that surrounds the subject of carbohydrates – yes, it’s not just supermodels who stress about carbs! Don’t forget, if you have any queries about equine nutrition you can contact our award-winning Feedline on 0845 345 5115.

The endless rain has adversely affected hay production in some areas. However, conversely it provided ideal conditions for the growing of Alfalfa here on the Dengie Peninsula where we high-temperature dry the crop and so are not so reliant on the sun.

I hope that wherever you are the weather didn’t ruin your summer either.

Emma