Francesca Newman

Sukey’s Competition Diary

Oldencraig July 9th

The location of the Southern Regional Qualifiers… Oldencraig hasn’t been a good venue for us, but as the Regionals are here in 3 weeks we have been practising hard.

Finally our hard work has paid off, and in temperatures topping 31 degrees with the flags sluggishly moving in the wind, we got a First in the Elementary 45!!

Sukey behaved like an angel (ok, so we did dig a hole in Oldencraig’s perfectly manicured field) especially since I was on my own for the first time. We spent about 10 mins walking, working on our suppleness and quickness off the leg

The Summer Regionals August 9th

After months of work and preparation , practising at Oldencraig to get Sukey used to the venue our class Novice 37 gets moved to the generally unused Lake arena! She warmed up beautifully, soft, calm and forward and I had high hopes as we entered the arena. She started spooking and refused to go to the A end, I started to worry that I would have to retire before even entering when the buzzer indicated I had seconds to enter! The rest of the test went like it had started, there was a terrifying pile of rocks in one corner, some monstrous Moorhens on the other, the reflective glass of the 3 judging boxes was too much and the clinking of the photographer (those are going to be interesting shots) sent my normally very sensible lady into total melt down! We weren’t last as thankfully others had similar problems, but it was a big disappointment.

Bring on the PetPlan Area Festival!!!

Merrist Wood 21st August

In preparation for the Area Festival, Sukey and I went to Merrist Wood to have a practice ride of Elemenatry 53, also to iron out a few issues we had at the Regionals – head wagging, dropping off the contact and loss of attention. We did more than iron out issues, we came 1st in the Novice 35 open qualifier and 2nd in the Elementary 53 restricted!!!

Francesca Newman