Displays and Demonstrations

If you are wondering about the picture at the start of this blog, it is of Orfebre with me riding in traditional Spanish riding dress, along with my two friends Rose Thomas and Sarah Entwhistle. Both girls are accomplished flamenco dancers, and we put together a display for Children In Need last November at the Hand EC in Clevedon, Somerset. This is something I have always wanted to do, the combination of dancers and dancing with the horse. Rose found me some superb authentic flamenco music which suited Orfebre's paces well. We included some vocal encouragement, plenty of "Ole"s and "chico bonito", and a "vamos!!" during the extended canter.

Planning the choreography was a challenge, making sure we kept close but not getting in each other's way, but perhaps the greatest challenge was practising in my outdoor school in typical november temperatures, in skimpy flamenco dresses!

This was the latest display we have done, future displays and demos will be posted on this blog as they occur. Enquiries about displays can be made to me via email fionafoy@blueyonder.co.uk

Winter Regional Finals 2008

Fulminante -Cen is qualified for the Novice Freestyle, this will take place on Sat 23 Feb at Kingston Maurward.
Orfebre is qualified for the Advanced Medium and the freestyle PSG, both on Sun 24 Feb.

Pupil Marie Pearce has qualified for the novice and elementary freestyles, using choreography and music I have produced for her.

Fer Naranjito

Fer Naranjito , Mrs T Sweetman’s gorgeous PRE stallion, has made his debut into affiliated competition, gaining 3 BD points in his novice tests, and a 6th place! He needs to get a lot more match practice so he can concentrate in the arena, so I look forward to being out and about with him a lot more this year.

My Pupils' News

MARIE PEARCE has qualified Small Soldier for both the novice and elementary freestyles at the Winter Regionals. Marie had never done dressage to music before, and this time last year I persuaded her to be a guinea pig at a demo I was doing. We put together some great music and choreography, and she went out and qualified really quickly. Music has been the turning point for both of them. WELL DONE MARIE!!!

At the PetPlan Area Festival at Pencoed in September 2007, I was so proud to have THREE of my pupils lined up in the prizegiving for the Novice Restricted. JO RICKETTSwith Flying Turk was third, MARIE PEARCE and Small Soldier 4th, andRACHEL YOUNG with Mr Cream 5th. This means that Jo and Marie will be travellling to the Finals to be held at Hartpury College with the Winter Championships in April. WELL DONE GIRLS!!!

MAGGIE KING from Dorset has taken her lovely young Lusitano, Vento out for his first competition, a walk and trot test at Moreton EC, she came third! WELL DONE MAGGIE!!!

Not all news is about competition success. A mention is deserved by KATE APTED. Kate, a hard working and dedicated police officer, is equally committed to the training of her very difficult horse. Kate rescued Roxy, a Welsh Cob mare, from a gypsy fair a few years ago. She has patiently worked to restore the horse’s confidence and although it is a huge challenge, I believe we are finally getting somewhere. We have a pact that neither of us will give up on each other or the horse, and that mutual support is working. Roxy can now manage to concentrate for longer periods and has rewarded our patience recently by managing a little lateral work and even a few strides of counter canter, without exploding! So well done Kate, keep it up!!

Orfebre

ORFEBRE made his debut at Intermediare 1 in style, by coming 6th! I was delighted with his test – he tried his socks off and managed all the movements. Now we are confident that we are ready for this level and will continue to work to improve it. To prove that confidence, Orfebre also came 4th in the PSG qualifier at Hand Equestrian, against some stiff competition and well known names. He WON the PSG at Moreton EC, he was really on form that day. At Sparsholt on 9 February, we had a warm up for the regionals by doing the Advanced Medium and PSG freestyles. In the Advanced Medium we gained 73.5%, and a third place which has qualified us for the Winter Regionals 2009. The PSG did not go so well, tension got the better of him, so we will try harder next time.

He is a tricky horse, and I am always striving for consistency so these results have really encouraged me.

Clinics

I am now running even more clinics. See the online diary on my website for details. There are regular clinics in Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset, Berkshire, Leicestershire and Wiltshire. There will shortly be one starting up in Gloucestershire. North Farm Andalusians are on the move again and I will be teaching at their new premises north of the M4 in the Cirencester area.

If you would like to set up a clinic in your area, please contact me. The website has more details and a downloadable guide to setting up a successful clinic.

Summer Regional Final Qualifications

congratulations to Kerry McNamara who has qualified Minty for the Preliminary at the BD Summer Regionals. WELL DONE KERRY!!

Congratulations to Susie Homewood who has qualified Paddy's Patron for the Medium Restricted at the BD Summer Regionals. WELL DONE SUSIE!!

Fulminante-Cen

FULMINANTE-CEN has also been out and has had a go at a couple of Elementaries, these have gone well, he needs to gain a bit more confidence but I am pleased with his progress so far. He also went to Sparsholt and got 71% for his novice freestyle, a great warmup for the Regionals.