Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2014/January 2015 | Page 76

EQUESTRIAN

Fillies' Quest for glory!
S

everal Island teams took part
in a season long, inter-regional
competition designed by British
Dressage (BD) called Team Quest. The
new event comprised having a team of
four riders who all competed in dressage,
at walk-trot, preliminary and novice
levels, and the combined scores
throughout the summer gave an
overall total.
The series ran from March through
to late October with six different
competitions to test the riders’ skills.
Pam Gardener is the British
Dressage organiser for the Isle of
Wight, and is assisted by Louise
Blow. Pam said: “Although the
competition was run nationally by
BD the Island had no chance of
qualifying because of the rules,
which have been subsequently
changed, so next year we will be
able to compete. So we ran an
event within the competition at Lake
Farm, Rookley, starting with 11 teams,
and sponsored by Farmhouse Fayre,
Newport, who donated sashes and
rosettes to the competitors.
“A few teams didn’t quite go the distance,
due to various reasons such as horse
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injuries, but six teams completed the
whole series. It was great fun, and those
who took part really enjoyed themselves.
We will run it again next year, and have
already had a lot of people come forward
and say they would like to take part, so

hopefully it will be bigger and better.”
The teams who completed the event
were Vectis Fillies, Piaffing Useless,
Dancing Divas, IW Foresters, No
Great Expectation and IW Farmers’
Bloodhounds Supporters.
Pam added: “Teams were encouraged

to make up their own names, and wear
their own team colours, and although it
proved fun it was also quite competitive.
Points were accumulated and in the end
it proved very close. Official mainland
judges from British Dressage were on
hand to judge the competitions,
which is nice for people here to be
judged by mainland officials.
“We tried to encourage riders to
push themselves a bit, not take
the easy option, and they did, with
several moving up one or two levels
during the events. It was nice to see
that sort of progression.”
The event was won by the Vectis
Fillies team of Kelly Harris, Julie
Wannop-Corney, Sammy Henton,
Maddie McIntosh and stand-in Laura
Windle with an overall total of 55
points, and they were presented with
the Santander Cup.
Piaffing Useless were second with
51, and their team comprised Martine
Harbour, Natasha Coventry, Lindsey White,
Teresa Pitman and stand-in Anita Street.
The Dancing Divas team of Pam
Gardener, Kate Suitor, Andrea Godsmark,
Kerry Phillips and stand-in Paige Richards
were third with 50 points.