Trotting to the top - BUCS A Team Match Review

As the first term comes to a close for De Montfort, Wednesday 4th of December saw the last of the A team fixtures at Witham Villa Riding Centre with DMU Equestrian finishing, what has already been a successful year on home ground. With dressage and show jumping training now happening every week, the team were anxious to get out there and show off all their hard work over the past few months, since their victorious success at Sheffield University just a few weeks ago.

Jenny Walker and Monty

The team to represent DMU at home comprised of four top rider's; Jenny Walker, Clare Wilyman, Gemma Elliott and Georgia Aston who at their recent BUCS competition came back with some fantastic individual and team results for De Montfort. The team were hoping for the same successful streak to follow them back home to compete with some never before seen horses being used for the first time in BUCS for De Montfort. Judge of the day Richard Baldwin, a regular dressage judge at Witham Villa anticipated a great day of showing ahead for all the teams competing in the university league and was excited to be working alongside the university rider's for the day

Georgia Aston and Todd

The teams competing included some of the top British universities for equestrian sport with Loughborough, Nottingham and Nottingham Trent all part of the big BUCS league alongside De Montfort. With the regularity of training and focus dedicated to improving upon individual needs and goals, De Montfort were in for a promising day to gain some high scores and top results with the standard of riding higher than ever before. The dressage set for the day included some of Witham's top dressage horses, some that have competed up to medium regional level, a standard of exceptional dressage performance.

Clare Wilyman and Dexter

Monty- A stunning, 16.2hh bay gelding bred right on Witham's doorstep. Monty has qualified for the British Dressage summer regionals at Preliminary level and currently competes BD novice and elementary level dressage.
Victor- One of De Montfort's favourite dressage boys, the gorgeous 16.1hh gelding, Victor. Imported from Holland in 2012, Victor has competed in all disciplines and is being schooled currently to further his dressage. Victor qualified for the Preliminary senior regionals with Jenny Walker and is set to have a bright and promising dressage career ahead of him!
Todd- A lovely 15.2hh bay gelding, also imported from Holland. Todd has evented prior to coming to Witham and this was to be his first ever BUCS competition.
Dexter- 15.2hh Irish sport, the cheeky chestnut gelding Dexter is a horse who has competed in numerous BUCS competitions over the past 2 years. He has competed in Prelim and Novice level dressage never gaining less than 60% in all of his tests. A stunning horse with some impressive paces, one to watch for in the future.

The dressage commenced at 10am, with some fabulous and accurate tests displayed from all the teams, with De Montfort gaining some very impressive scores. Savvy show jumper, Gemma Elliott rode Victor and trotted out of the arena with 72.8%, a massive achievement for both horse and rider who were ecstatic with the result.

Gemma Elliott and Victor

With the sunshine continuing into the afternoon, the show jumping phase was ready to commence at 1pm. Some of the horses from the B team home competition including; Harrison, Ben and Caesar were to compete again with the new addition of Benji, the bold, bay thoroughbred who has competed in numerous university competitions and finished in 3rd place at the BHS Riding Schools Final in 2013.

The course comprised of 8 fences including; a dog leg, double, related distance and two spreads all set at 90cm BUCS league match height. There were some impressive and clear rounds displayed from all the teams, and the day finished on a high for everyone involved, after an intense few weeks of training by all who took part, finally paying off in the end with the rosette ceremony highlighting some of the highest scores of the season so far.

With the season coming to a close, DMU Equestrian set their sights to next year and the start of the 2014 BUCS matches. A huge improvement has been displayed from all the rider's and the promise of more individual and higher team placings is still the aim for all of our BUCS competitors. A massive congratulations to all the A team rider's for their achievement at their home yard as we continue to see them grow and develop more positively as a team.

CONGRATULATIONS TO DMU A TEAM:

Jenny Walker

Gemma Elliott

Clare Wilyman 

Georgia Aston

Clare Wilyman and Harrison

Georgia Aston and Benji

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