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DIARY DATES 2017

Vale View Para

Winter Champs

17-19 March

Para Home Int

7-9 April

Hartpury Winter

Champs & AF Final

12-16 April

Addington

Judges Convention

18 April

Windsor CDI4*

11-12 May

Hartpury CDI3*/

CPEDI 6-10 Jul

Hickstead CDI5*/

CDIO 27-30 Jul

Sheepgate U25

Champs 21-26 Aug

Solihull RC

Para Silver Champs

& Rider Development

26-27 Aug

NATIONALS

Stoneleigh 14-17 Sep

Mount Ballan, Wales

Senior Home Int

6-8 Oct

Olympia CDIW4*

London 14-23 Dec

Valegro, Charlotte and Alan at Aachen, 2015. And the winning pair at Rio 2016

Photo courtesy of Kevin Sparrow

VALEGRO retires in December – he, Charlotte, and Alan, no

doubt along with Valegro’s owners Carl Hester, Anne Barrott

& Roly Luard, will be at Olympia for his official retirement on

Wednesday 14 December – and is sold out!

To say that the combination has transformed UK dressage is

the under-statement of the century. His future is secure; he’s

already been to the US and he will be making other public

appearances to keep his legions of fans happy but no more

competitions. Luckily, Carl and Charlotte have some

wonderful horses in their string coming through the ranks as

Tokyo beckons but, of course, nothing and no-one could

replace the amazing Blueberry. Germany has some strong

contenders but, thanks to Team Hester they will never again

be quite as complacent as they used to be!

Huge congratulations to Carl on becoming the first

ever BD Honorary Patron. Richly deserved.

BRITISH DRESSAGE

SUPPORTERS CLUB

w w w . b d s c . u k . c o m

AUTUMN/WINTER NEWSLETTER 2016

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CHAIRMAN’S LETTER

Dear Members & Friends Welcome to our Autumn/Winter Newsletter 2016 and for once the weather has treated us more kindly this autumn. What a wonderful summer our British Olympic and Para Olympic riders had in Rio. We are so very lucky to have such incredible riders – they were a joy to watch. Valegro was superb as always and I think it is such a good idea to retire him at the top of his game. We are told he will retire at Olympia in December, and I am sure there will not be a dry eye in the house. I gather we will still be able to see him at various demonstrations. BDSC has been very busy this summer. We had our marquees at Hickstead and the Nationals and many of you visited us to watch excellent dressage and partake of our food and wine. Once again Albion gave us a wonderful prize for the membership draw at the Nationals which was won by Sally Hardwick. A big thank you to Albion and all the other equestrian suppliers who gave a discount to BDSC members. Lorrie Sisson is organising a trip to the European Dressage Championships in Gothenburg in August 2017 – more about this below. We will have our marquees at Hickstead and the Nationals in 2017. BDSC will also sponsor the Judges Convention, the Para Development Day, Sheepgate, and the Senior Home International. I look forward to meeting up with as many of you as possible in the New Year. Congratulations to the riders who represented Team GB in Rio.

A very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Penny Smith

Committee:

Chairman

Penny Smith,

Flat 4,

160 Sutherland

Avenue,

London W91HP

Vice-Chairman

Ann Dugdale

Treasurer

Denise Hulse

Membership

Jane Kendall,

Pilstye Farmhouse,

Rowhill Lane,

Balcombe,

West Sussex,

RH17 6JN

Trips

Lorrie Sisson,

The Hawthornes,

Vicarage Lane,

North Weald,

Essex CM16 6AL

Para &

Northern Rep

Debi Woods

Hospitality

Cathy Wright

Gill Gallagher

& Pauline Avery

Newsletter

Gill Gallagher &

Andrea Hessay

All email

addresses

Firstname @

bdsc.uk.com

EUROPEANS IN GOTHENBURG –

21 - 27 AUGUST 2017

Once again, Lorrie Sisson is organising a trip to the Europeans; already 22 people want to go; they know how well these trips are organized, how much fun they are and how much time and effort Lorrie puts into them. If you are interested, please contact Lorrie on lorrie.sisson@btinternet.com for further

details. Don’t delay!

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KRYSTYNA MONKS – BDSC Training Voucher winner

Krystyna rode as a child and then, like lots of us, life intervened and horses weren’t part of her

main agenda. When she left her job in the City in 2000, she bought herself a horse, Merlot,

and ‘found’ dressage; she also trained first as a Bowen therapist for people and horses and

then as an equine craniosacral therapist.

These days she has Dubai, an 8 year old KWPN gelding by Berlin, competing successfully at

Elementary/Medium, and, since October 2015, Favorit, a 6 year old gelding by Floriscount x

Lauries Crusader, as her current projects. Favorit is otherwise known as Squid as he is jet

black and very long legged. Her competition record is impressive with both horses and Squid,

in particular, qualifying Prelim for the 2016 Nationals and Novice for the Pet Plan

championships in 2017. She claimed our bursary for the BDSC member with the highest

percentage when she won the Novice Bronze at Sheepgate Home International. Krystyna didn’t

know about the bursary so was delighted to receive such an unexpected bonus, especially as

she only re-joined BDSC recently, along with her husband!

Photos: Krystyna & Andrea Hessay and Krystyna on Favorit at the Nationals

SHEEPGATE ran their annual, and amazing, U25s championship at the end of

August. As if that wasn’t enough, they then hosted the Senior Home International in

October and we joined other sponsors at both these important events.

The photo shows the 1st – 3rd prize winners of the BDSC FEI Pony Championship, Oliv-

ia Whitelaw who rode Brouwershaven’s Viceroy, 2nd was Lavinia Johnson with

Dublin and 3rd was Charlie Grieve and Mandor Van de Groenheuvel.

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BDSC AT THE NATIONALS & HICKSTEAD

A Medley of Medallists

There doesn’t seem to be an official collective noun for a gathering of Olympians. A

‘colossus of Olympians’ has been suggested, which goes some way to describing the

‘glitterati of greats,’ past and present, at the Nationals, some of whom visited the

BDSC marquee this year. Carl Hester, Spencer Wilton, Fiona Bigwood and Jennie

Loriston-Clarke, were there and came to one of BDSC’S highlights of the year: the

presentation of certificates by BD Chief Executive, Jason Brautigam, to Paras, Pony,

Juniors and Young Riders, the first ever Under 25 team to represent GB at their own

European Championships, the Olympic team and Senior riders who represented GB

for the first time.

Once again it was a special occasion with sparkling wine and nibbles and the

Committee was delighted to welcome the competitors’ friends and relatives.

We are so lucky to be able to watch every level of test and world class horses and

riders every year.

Carl and Spencer with their BDSC certificates with

Jason and Penny

Right: Jason Brautigam presenting

certificates with Penny Smith

Left: Carl, Spencer, Paul Hayler, Jennie

Loriston-Clarke, Gill & Bobby Hayler

Carl & Wanadoo - National Champion

for the 9th time!

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KBIS Para winners at this year’s

National Championships

The marquee at Hickstead was

also popular although, this year,

the traditional international

programme was replaced by a

Regionals Dressage competition.

Our ringside location was

excellent. The hard work of Dane

Rawlins and his team in making

the occasion such a success is

greatly appreciated.

Photo courtesy of Kevin Sparrow

(copyright)

PROFILE

One of the two first time Olympic Team GB members, Silver medallist Spencer

Wilton found time to talk to Andrea about his experiences in Rio, and the journey

he and Super Nova II (Neville) embarked on to gain their Olympic medal.

Neville is 13, by De Niro x Weltmeyer, owned by Jen Goodman, and is ‘a

soundness disaster’, with what can only be described as a complicated mental

attitude to life, a sensitive character with loads of ability but often his own worst

enemy. Neville came from Carl’s yard and Spencer has had the ride on him for 6

years.

Spencer works with Claire Hinton, his groom, and Darren Hicks, his partner.

Spencer was relatively late to pure dressage, having evented through Pony Club

into senior competition, when the death of a close eventing friend changed his

mindset. He knew Carl and had done some fill-in riding for him and, after one

particular longer spell, stayed with Carl for 13 years! When they split, he had

only a car, some clothes and teaching to sustain him; he was more or less a

nomad for a couple of years. Then a family friend bought him a horse that he

initially had in for training (quite a feat as he didn’t have a yard at the time) but,

in the way of these things, it started Spencer back on the journey into

competitive dressage.

He ended up with 15 horses, three members of staff and all the pressure that that

entails, so he took the decision to downsize and moved to Rowan Lewis’s Endalls

Farm in Berkshire, where he has just 5 boxes and use of all the facilities. In 2014

Neville had a career threatening injury that took many months of care to resolve;

Darren took on the unenviable task of hacking Neville out for 8 months (Neville is

a nightmare to hack). After that, it took another year for the vets to sign him off so

it’s easy to imagine the pressure when the phone call came in June this year that

Spencer and Neville had been selected for the last place on Team GB.

Especially with a horse like Neville - ‘not as others are’ - decisions as to how to

keep him on track leading up to Rio were very carefully considered and Hartpury

was, luckily, a resounding success with a PB of 77%.

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BDSC Trumpet Blowing!

At the Senior Home International we award an annual training grant of £150 to the

BDSC member with the highest percentage and Krystyna Monks was this year’s

recipient.

In August, BD’s annual Para Rider Development Day and Silver Championships were

held at Solihull RC. This is, effectively, a talent seeking weekend of which BDSC is one of the sponsors, together with NAF, the Worshipful Company of Saddlers, and the

PDTT (Para Dressage Training Trust). The programme includes test riding where

competitors are judged on their riding ability and future potential.

Grade III rider, 14-year-old Lucy Mae Bush from Bath, won the 13-15 age category

and was also the overall winner on a final score of 81.58%. She was awarded 64.76% for her test riding, 100% for her written paper and 80% for her trainability. Lucy rides Rainbow II, a 18 year old skewbald gelding who she has ridden for over two years; in a

former life Rainbow had a successful showing career and is owned by Judy Shellard. Lucy won, for the second year running, the training grant awarded to the highest

placed BDSC member.

And, finally, the BDSC Pony Trophy for the Pony rider who, in the Selectors’ opinion, produced the best performance at Premier Leagues during the year, was awarded to

Charlotte McDowall (14) from Gloucestershire on BKS Grand Design.

Neville is not the best in indoor arenas but the risk paid off and they went to Rio on a

high. The next anxiety was the flight - exceptionally, Claire was allowed to travel with

him so he had the best care and all was well.

The Rio experience was ‘amazing and the best of my life’, the team was made up of

four people who knew each other well so the spirit was fantastic. Neville was totally

hyper in the prize giving and the difficulty was to actually get back on him, so Claire

and Dickie Waygood anchored him and Alan legged Spencer up; the medal was heavy

and swinging madly so, with one hand on the reins and the other on the medal, it was

an interesting ride but they survived!

What now? They recently went to Stuttgart in Germany where they were 3rd, with a

solid score of 74.98% in the GP. Spencer has his eye on the Europeans in 2017 and

the Worlds in 2018; the World Cup series is a possibility and Tokyo could beckon;

Neville will be 17 in 2020. Spencer will, like us all, wait and see.

Photos: Newbury weekly News; Spectator, Co. UK and Kevin Sparrow.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS

‘Riders’ Recipes’

By Penny Goring and Ann Pilgrim

(This little gem was found recently, tucked away in the BDSC’S storage unit).

Penny Goring’s very special cookery book, published in 1986, was produced in collaboration with

Ann Pilgrim who contributed a series of delightful illustrations. It was a fund raiser for BDSC’S

Dressage Training and Travel Fund and J.A. Allen printed it for free. Penny is a life member of BDSC

and the many members who attended our Annual Ball will remember the games which she

organised for so many years. The riotous ‘Hoof Pick and String ‘ team game was a great favourite

and it seems that Judy Harvey’s team won it more often than not.

The book is unique. It comprises recipes from so many famous riders, judges and trainers such as

Franz Rochowansky, Stephen Clarke, Jennie Loriston Clarke, David Hunt, Richard Davidson, Christine

Stuckleberger, Harry Boldt, Jaap Pot, and many more. Many thanks to Penny and Ann for allowing

us to include excerpts from the book.

YAP YUM HOT POT …………………………………………… JAAP POT

Ingredients

8 heads of chicory

8 slices of cooked ham

1.5 kg. potatoes

1/2 tsp. of grated nutmeg

30g butter

6 tbsp grated cheese

Method Serves 4.

Drop chicory in boiling water and simmer for 8 -10 mins. Drain well. Bandage each chicory head with a slice of

ham. Arrange them in half-pass in a single layer in a greased oven dish. Dust with half the cheese. Mash the

potatoes and passage them on top of the dish, dust with the remaining cheese and nutmeg. Piaffe with butter.

Bake in a hot oven 225 F. or gas mark 6 -7 for 15 mins. OR . instead of potatoes, pirouette 4 hard boiled eggs

cut lengthwise onto the chicory cover with a cheese sauce, dust with nutmeg and bake as above.

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THANK YOU

Thank you BDSC for organising the wonderful certificates for all international riders each year. It was the cherry on the top of a great season to receive mine at the Nationals as it has been for the past few years. I am hugely

grateful for everything that you do, and these are such special mementos of some amazing trips abroad. Thank you for your generosity! Mine are now

proudly displayed in the tack room. Rebecca Bell

Hi Jane Thanks for great hospitality at Hickstead. Sue Wainwright

Morning Jane

Excellent newsletter! Amazing to see everything that you are doing and it is

great for the sport - and useful for me to be able to keep in touch. Well done!

Wayne Channon

AND - A big thank you to Classic Dressage, Dressage Deluxe & Albion

Saddlery who offer BDSC members a discount at the Nationals, on

production of a current BDSC Membership card

Field & Style offer our members a 10% discount for online purchases -

www.fieldandstyle.com - put BDSC in the coupon box at checkout; some great

present ideas. Thank you Heather.

MEMBERSHIP - Do we have your correct address and email? Annual Membership – £25, Family annual membership – £50,

Individual life membership – £250, Corporate annual membership – £50

You can download an application form from our website www.bdsc.uk.com or

contact the Membership Secretary, Jane Kendall, at Jane@bdsc.uk.com

Members’ Competition - a draw takes place at the National Championships every year and all current members are automatically entered into the draw.

Newsletter - BDSC members receive the newsletter via email. If you would prefer a hard copy, please let Jane know and one will be sent to you. Keep up

to date with BDSC news via our website and we are also on Facebook.

ALL BEST WISHES FOR CHRISTMAS AND THE NEW YEAR

BDSC sponsors the Judges Convention - 18th April 2017 -

at Addington Equestrian Centre