Mari Durward-Akhurst

RDA Regionals

Today was the qualifier for the RDA National Championships. It was held at arrow RDA centre in Dartford.

Woody went really well in the warm up and I was really pleased with him. But then we had to walk around in a field for 10 minutes before my test, so he backed off a bit. But he went well in the test and we got 67.5% and so I was really pleased we finished 2nd overall and was 1st junior. So we are going to the RDA National Championships in July that are held at Hartpury College.

All the other riders did really well and it was nice to be able to watch and support them. It was then my turn to do my freestyle. It was going to be interesting because I had not ridden Woody to the music before and didn’t even know if it fitted. Woody also gets very strong and excited with the music and at 17.2 hands this is a lot of horse. I just stuck to my floor plan and the test went really well, both of us were a bit confused at times. But he really enjoyed himself and danced along to the music.

We came 1st junior and 2nd overall. I was really pleased with this because there are a lot of areas to improve on. My floor plan is right but just need to make some changes to the music ready for the Junior International and National RDA champs in July.

Mari