Dressage rider, Eleanor Rycroft’s Equestrian Life
Hi there everyone, my name is Eleanor Rycroft and I am a sixteen-year-old amateur dressage rider. I own one horse; a coloured Connemara cross called Tyler. We compete at Prelim/Novice level at affiliated level, and my column is all about my Equestrian Life!
I’ll start with my one bit of none horse-related news - my GCSE results came through and they were good enough for me to continue at my school and take
my A-levels in physics, maths, biology and history. So that was a big weight off my mind! But things have been very busy with Tyler this month! First up was the BD Summer Regionals at The College Equestrian, Keysoe. I was expecting it to be an enormous event and quite chaotic but I was surprised by how quiet and orderly it was. Tyler warmed up really well and performed a nice test for his warm-up class before having a little break before going in for our Regional
Eleanor and Tyler
Championship class. Again, he tried his heart out but I made an utterly stupid error in picking up the wrong diagonal which led to the wrong canter strike off. I was so cross with myself, and even more so when we came in twelfth - those marks lost meant we were out of the top ten. Still, it’s very exciting to have a horse who is capable of finishing in the top ten at his first ever Regionals, even if his rider is a liability.
However things didn’t stay gloomy for long as the week after I was going to compete at the Sheepgate BYRDS Under 25s competition, held at Sheepgate Equestrian. I had been selected to compete for my British Dressage Region in their Prelim team (named Northern Artemis) but I had also qualified for the individual Prelim competition and entered the Prelim Dressage to Music competition, so we were staying from the 21st of August to the 25th- our longest ever competition. I was very excited about going and when we arrived we found that the facilities were fantastic and I was really looking forward to competing over the week. The first four days brought lovely seaside weather and Tyler, after a shaky start, performed really well. It was only on the last day that the heavens opened and it turned out to be the most dramatic day. Up until then Tyler and I had achieved a few top ten placings, but we missed out on a rosette in the Individual Prelim Championship class. We also missed out on a place on the first day of the Team Competition, becoming the worst score in our team which was very disappointing. However, although the last day
Bolting at Sheepgate
of competition dawned with torrential rain and booming claps of thunder, we didn’t let that put us off, riding in a lucky dry spell, we scored 65% and came tenth individually. Our team gathered around the score board waiting for the results, and it was announced that our team had come third! We were very happy with this result and I was especially thrilled to be presented with my first ever sash. This happy glow didn’t last long - it transpired that all of the scores for the first day had been wrong and so all of the team placings were going to change. I felt very disappointed and I was certain that our team would move down the placings.
But I couldn’t have been more wrong - we were actually placed first in the Prelim National Team Championship! It was an extraordinary moment for me, and it still gives me a little buzz every time I think about it. To think that I am a national champion still amazes me and it was several weeks ago! To watch the video that I made search ‘Sheepgate Under 25’s AwesomeHorseome’ into Youtube- it’s the third one down. I also have another bit of wonderful news- I came home to open my GCSE results and I’m pleased and relieved to say that I achieved nine A*s and one A. I am still secure in my ambition to go on and study Physics at university and I’m so happy. Things are now going to cool down a bit as I go back to school and we probably won’t be out competing very much. Fingers crossed that the autumn weather will be kind to us.
Ellie and Tyler x
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www.equestrianlifemagazine.co.uk
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