SAFFRON Walden and District Riding Club kicked off their outdoor season last Saturday at Sparrows Hill Livery.

Dressage

SAFFRON Walden and District Riding Club kicked off their outdoor season last Saturday at Sparrows Hill Livery.

There were six classes throughout the day, running in both the short and long arena’s, with the warm up on grass.

Class one was an encouragement walk/trot test for novice riders and horses. The class was split into section (a) under tens only, and section (b) open. The restricted section was won by junior member Sophie Waring on Pebbles.

Section (b) was hotly contested with many combinations on their very first competitive outing, but nearly half the class managed scores of 60 per cent or above. The winner of section (b) was Sarah Hamnett on Sidney with an outstanding 75.6 per cent.

The Prelim classes (two and three) also saw a few new and novice combinations. Alex Greatorex won prelim seven with a score of 70.5 per cent. Kate Slack took class three on her mare Exclusive Edition with 66.8 per cent and must be looking forward to moving onto novice’s this summer.

There was a bit of family competition in both the novice classes as mother and daughter, Susan and Boffie Brown took turns to ride Boffie’s retrained racehorse, Steve. Luckily both won their respective classes but Boffie won on a score of 69.3 per cent whilst Susan could only manage a winning score of 67.2 per cent.

There were just two entries for the final elementary test which saw Kerry White just beat Jane Hood to take the red rosette. The next dressage show will be on Sunday June 19 for more details see swdrc.co.uk.