11/10/2026
💛🖤Cob Club dressage championships 🖤💛
I’ve been so slow to post this, it’s just been one of those weeks 🤷🏻♀️
I don’t know where to start! I very nearly didn’t enter, despite qualifying with both Willow and Mya. I’ve not been to Manor Grange in years and I was stressing at the thought of it all! Willow has only been to 4 dressage competitions and they have all been at Thornton House and I knew it was a big ask taking her to Manor Grange because there is so much going on and to take in.
In the end I bit the bullet and entered and just thought we should give it a go and I had absolutely no expectations, I just wanted it to be a positive learning experience for her and also force myself to step out of my comfort zone as well!
Willow was a superstar from start to finish! She was her normal little cheery self about being at a pony party! She kept quietly looking to me for reassurance as I expected she would, but she warmed up beautifully. Then when we went in for our warm up test we set off round the edge of the arena well, especially considering she has never ridden a test along side another arena with tests being ridden. But then as we got to the judges end she was completely overwhelmed by it all, the judges box, the windows of the cafe and viewing gallery, it was all a bit much for her to process. When Willow is unsure she usually gives warning and very politely grinds to a halt to process everything, she just needs a moment and some quiet reassurance from me that it’s ok and then she always goes on, obviously in a competition situation it’s not normally forgiving of that but thankfully The Cob Club competitions are aimed at building confidence and a friendly atmosphere to encourage people to just give it a go! Sarah came to the rescue and walked with her past and then off we went. Our entry down the centre line started well and then as soon as we got to the judges end we ground to a halt for what felt like forever (but was actually only a few seconds!) she gave me such a fabulous test for everything that wasn’t at the judges end, she really felt incredible and we even scored an 8 for our last centre line! We lost a lot of marks for obvious reasons but still managed to finish on a very respectable 64.55% and 6th place out of a huge class! And then I was hoping our championship test would be in the same arena but it was in the other one, so I decided that it would be more beneficial to Willow from a learning point of view to just get round the test without stopping so I didn’t ride it as polished and accurately as I normally would, I just focused on keeping the energy to get her round, which in turn meant our test was a little hurried however we got round it very positively and she was super brave and we finished on another very respectable score of 65.96% and we only went and came 4th in the Championship out of another huge class!!!
On paper… yes they were our lowest scores but what a huge step forward for her in her education and my gosh I honestly couldn’t be more proud of her right now, I can’t stop smiling even a week later! There really are no words! She gave me absolutely everything and is the most incredibly special little lady with such a huge heart and I am so grateful that our paths crossed 💛🖤💛🖤
(And thank you for reading if you made it to the end😆)
