Team PRE had a successful weekend at Keysoe for the British Dressage Premier League and COPA ANCCE qualifiers.

This weekend was the second in the series of qualifying events that make up the first ever UK qualifiers for the COPA ANCCE World Dressage Championships, which will be held at SICAB.

Each PRE (Purebred Spanish horse), depending on its age and training, may participate in the ANCCE Cup from 4 year old Young Horse classes up to Grand Prix.

The top three results for each combination will be recorded in the ANCCE league table, the top 12 in the World qualifying to compete at the prestigious finals at SICAB.

Vicky Thompson-Winfield finished a spectacular 1st & 3rd in the Grand Prix Freestyle and GP with 75.38% & 70.10% respectively on the lovely Mango Jacaro.

Pete Saunders and the beautiful 5 yr old Danes CA were the first pair to contest the Young Horse UK SICAB qualifying classes whilst Alice Hurley and Charlotte Crocker-Westlake (both SICAB finalists last year) competed in the PSG & Inter 1.

All picked up COPA ANCCE medals and qualifying %s for the ANCCE league table.

For full details of the qualifying venues, dates and information about how to participate, please click here.

28th – 30th April 2017 saw the first of GBPRE’s showing clinics, put together for you to help maximise your horses’ potential in the ring and demystify the Spanish showing experience.

Our first stop was Wales, to Bridgend College in Pencoed where we had use of their fabulous indoor school. The journey down was interesting, complete with wildly unnecessary 20 minute detour into the Welsh countryside (thank you SatNav) but we still made it with plenty of time to set up, and luckily our riders had better fortune when commuting to the college!

We welcomed a couple of gorgeous grey mares (owned by Lyn Beattie and Erica Drozd) to the ridden session first thing, and they were put through their paces by our riding trainer Hannah Doggett. Hannah Doggett is a Grand Prix rider with vast experience in the Spanish show ring, with multiple Champion Stallion and Junior Champion titles under her belt, plus many more, with her own and client’s horses, she’s a heavyweight in the Iberian ring and packs a performance with punch.

Next we had Tracey Lucas’s own Maryss Tigre and Puntal, such beautiful characters to work with who gave their all, not only put through their paces in the ridden section but also worked up on the ground by our in-hand trainer, winner of multiple Best Presenter awards, numerous Championship titles and a regular SICAB competitor, Oriol Matas. Assisted by fellow presenter Stephanie Hurstfield, the horses showed huge improvement and a real talent for their work whilst remaining relaxed in the strange environment.

Saturday we were off to Surrey! The Priory in Frensham, to be exact, where clinic number 2 took place in the beautiful southern countryside. We kicked off the day with a busy ridden schedule, with age range from 4 years old to 14 years old! The beautiful Irlandes XVIII, owned by Christine Houghton and ridden by Sarah Ridd, had an arena to himself in the morning in a firm but fair lesson with Hannah. With their sights set on Windsor Horse Show, the duo had come for some Spanish – specific showing advice.

Next we had another grey pair, a gorgeous Lago gelding (Johan Redelinghuys) and stunning mare Arqeura (Penny Powell), both of whom have busy competition schedules ahead of them. Knuckling down to do both the ridden and the inhand was the gorgeous stallion Magnolia, owned by Nicola Wright, and the elegant Magistrado VIII, owned by Sue Conway. Both horses came to the clinic with various elements of their ridden and inhand show that needed altering, but they certainly left with a positive performance and I certainly look forward to seeing both at the breed show!

Sunday was the turn of Sarah Corbett and her 2 stunners – including more greys! Not that we mind that at all…  overall, a busy weekend meeting some wonderful owners and their elegant, well mannered and beautiful horses. As well as those mentioned here, thank you to all of you that came along and made it the wonderful and educational experience that it was. Much was learned and we all feel much better prepped for the breed show now!

Huge thanks to our trainers Oriol Matas, Stephanie Hurstfield and Hannah Doggett, and to the venues that hosted us – The Priory, Frensham, Bridgend College, Pencoed, and Stephanie Hurstfield’s own home. We look forward to seeing you at the next clinic!

Gemma Bowles

“Just want to say huge thank you today at GBPRE, we attended the showing clinic at Pencoed, what a great day…it was all really helpful… Massive thanks to Oriol, he was amazing with Luca (Puntal) and spent a lot of time getting him to understand what was wanted of him! Everybody was lovely and I just wanted to say thank you again, I hope there will be more clinics like this…” – Tracey Lucas, Facebook