Two horses, two titles, one unforgettable week at the Winter Dressage Championships – meet the rider behind the double

The closing classes of day three at the Petplan Winter Area Festival Championships and the NAF Five Star Winter Dressage Championship (15–19 April) produced three silver titles at Addington Equestrian – a second of the week for one rider, a wild card turned champion and another national crown for a six-year-old already well on his way to legend status.

Alice Begg picked up her second title at the Winter Area Festival Championships, winning the advanced medium silver with her own 11-year-old mare Kolita, scoring 69.39%.

Earlier in the week, she also won a tight medium silver on her other ride, eight-year-old mare Noraly.

“I’ll be honest, I’m pretty speechless,” Alice said. “We’ve never won one before, so two in the same week is unbelievable – and with two different horses.”

The advanced medium test was not an entirely straightforward ride. “She actually went in really tense today,” Alice said of Kolita. “She was really tense throughout the warm-up, went in, put down the first centre line super tense, but by the time we’d done half the trot work, she really relaxed and took me through the rest of the test.

“I was really happy with her at the end, especially when she wasn’t the happiest as we started. She really tried for me.”

Kolita is, she added, a markedly different ride to Noraly. “She’s literally at the opposite end of the scale. She’s very hot, very sharp. But very talented.”

With no further classes this week, Alice is heading home with two sashes. “That’s us done now. We can go home happy.”

Winter Area Festival Championships: Wildcard entry rewarded after five-hour haul

Claire Tucker and her own seven-year-old chestnut mare MCS Fiorella (For Romance x His Highness), won the novice silver, scoring 70.89%.

Fourth to go in a mammoth class, Claire had a long wait to see if her score would be enough to take the title, finishing eventually half a percentage point ahead of Anastasia Meadows and MGH April in second.

It was a result that almost didn’t happen. “She got a wild card to come here, and we almost didn’t come – we came five hours from Devon this morning,” Claire said.

Fiorella – known at home as Fee – is a homebred from Claire’s MCS Stud, and had only seven competitions to her name before arriving at Addington. She also had a foal at five.

“I’m absolutely over the moon,” Claire said, picking out the mare’s “relaxation and suppleness, and just dealing with the whole atmosphere” as the high points of the test.

Dressage is not Fiorella’s only discipline. “I’ll jump her as well, because I like to jump all my horses,” Claire said. “I come from a showjumping and eventing background, but I breed dressage and event horses.”

The breeding operation runs alongside a full-time job as a personal trainer. “I get up early, I do all my horses myself. I only breed one or two a year – I was out watching the camera all night last night, and I’ve got another foal imminently – I just love it.”

Next on the agenda is a step up the levels. “We start working towards elementary now, and hopefully medium by the end of the year – see how she goes.”

At home in Brushford, near Winkleigh, Fiorella has an unlikely best friend. “She actually goes out with our donkey, Florence, during the day – best friends. She hacks out, she does everything. She’s absolutely brilliant.”

Winter Dressage Championships: “Mr Consistent” strikes again

In the Winter Dressage Championship classes, Amy Ward won the Baileys Horse Feeds novice freestyle silver on MS Broadway M (Bon Courage x Royal Classic), scoring 75.19%. The six-year-old is the reigning five-year-old national champion and also took the Centre Line prelim silver title at last summer’s nationals.

“75% seems to be our championship-winning score across the board,” Amy said. “I called him Mr Consistent in the summer, and he’s just gone and nailed it again. He’s becoming a little bit of a legend – but that is adding the pressure for me to make sure I maintain our standards as we go.”

“This is our first season riding freestyle, so it’s been a learning curve from the get-go,” Amy added. “It’s a big atmosphere in there for him. He really rises to an atmosphere, and I love riding him in an indoor – there’s some feeling he lifts to.

“He got quite hot, and there were a couple of moments I wasn’t quite planning for, which got a bit tricky. But I can’t be anything other than happy with the score.”

Amy has had the ride for just over a year and is based with Jezz Palmer at Anmore Dressage, where Jezz shares the ride.

“It’s been really great because there’s development for the horse and development for me and the partnership,” Amy said. “I’m really lucky to have a horse like him. He’s teaching me a lot while we’re teaching him dressage at the same time.”

The floor plan was designed in house and set to music by Tom Hunt, the brief to go for something “epic”.

“Jezz does stress me out slightly with his planning,” Amy laughed. “We go in the arena and ride, and he films and shouts moves at me as I go, and we see what works. Jezz is the brain behind the floor plan, and Tom has put the drama to the music.”

The test opens in walk – a deliberate choice. “He has a great walk, and to enter in walk felt quite brave,” Amy said. “That’s his presence.”

For all the polish of the score, and MS Broadway’s obvious, massive potential, Amy is keeping her feet on the ground. “He’s a total powerhouse. He’s still a baby, but he’s got so much power — he’s still learning to balance it, learning to use it, as am I.

“Right now, it’s a little bit like a rollercoaster to ride, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. It definitely got bigger in there than I was used to. It’s fine – we just run with it. I trust him.”

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