RDA and Ukrainian Equestrian Federation Fund Demo Evening

Demo Evening in association with Bewdley Bridle Club

We started the evening with the very wonderful but talkative Marty (Wayfield Warrior.) This lovely horse has exceeded all expectation by at the age of 15 turning his hoof to dressage. Even though he’s only at the start of his dressage journey, Mark was able to demonstrate how to make an ‘ordinary’ horse special with the correct training.

Marty can be quite stiff in the warmup arena before a test and struggles to change gear, which can be a common problem for a lot of lower-level horses, so Mark started off showing how he uses lateral exercises to get Marty bending more through his body, which in turn improved his push, which helped him stay more balanced and through in the transition. This allowed Mark to ride a rhythmical, straight uphill medium trot at the end of the session of test quality. Nick gave it a 7.5 but we know he can be a hard judge??

Next up was the magnificent Apollo (Ice Blue Valentino), who Mark worked in-hand to show the importance of thinking outside the box when it comes to training the more advanced movements with a sensitive horse. Apollo didn’t disappoint and showed all the advanced moves with ease, showing the importance of following the scales of training to maintain longevity in an older horse. Mark explained about Apollo’s daily management and that he rarely schooled and spends most of his time hacking and living out as part of a heard where he is happiest.

“A happy relaxed horse is much easier to train than a stressed tense one”.

We then welcomed Rowena Mottershead to show the progression you can make from unaffiliated Riding club level through to British Dressage with the correct training and hard work. Rowena has been a student of Nick’s for 18 months and is now competing Spirit at BD Elementary level and has qualified for the Winter Regionals Music Freestyle Novice. Nick ran through a typical training session and again expressed the importance of the scales of training with how they corelate with the judge marks.

We then introduced our special girl Mila (Milagros XVII). This beautiful lady came to us in Summer 2021. She is a wonderful little mare with the most trainable willing temperament who has an enormous amount of exuberance and cadence. She is still learning to keep it under control, so we decided not to campaign her at the lower levels. She will be making he debut at Medium level this summer.

Even though this was her first time away from home, we were confident she was ready, and she didn’t disappoint, Nick was able to demonstrate how to ride a ‘hot’ horse sympathetically. Through using different exercises and consistency Nick was able to show how to relax the mare and get her to take the contact forward and down. She even managed to contain herself for a little clap at the end…… she is definitely one to watch for the future.

And finally, we finished the evening off with our very own black beauty Apollo, showing off his amazing dressage to music freestyle test. Mark rode him beautifully and Apollo flicked his dancing shoes like the professional that he is, you’d never guess he was 20.

A truly lovely evening was had by all. Thank you to everyone who attended and entered the raffle, we raised £254 for the local RDA and Ukrainian Equestrian Federation Fund.

Our Raffle winners were:

  • Corvedale Equestrian £50 Training Vouchers - Penny Fryer & Anthea Beavan
  • Jess Photography Photoshoot - Stella Hadlington
  • Kingswood Water Treadmill session - Laura Cole & Julia Edwards
  • LM Saddle pad - Tracey Higgins
  • LM Leather Balm - Angela Young
  • BBC Gilet - Stephanie Jesson
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