Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2017 | Page 81

Equestrian
day two by performing mistake-free to
finish in 8th place.
As one of the the top 15, she went
through to the freestyle on day three and
finished in 9th place.
Going international
Gemma’s selection for the international
competitions has been achieved through
her consistently good scores at high
profile and premier league competitions.
British Dressage selectors decide and
select who they want to send to the
international competitions to represent
Great Britain against top riders from all
over Europe.
Gemma says her aim for 2017 is to
push on and do more competitions at
inter 11 level, starting in February with
her first competition of the year. She and
Mars also have Prix St George Freestyle
to music Regional Championship this
month, and have put their name forward
for four internationals
this year.
This makes life pretty
hectic for the 26 year-
old who, when she’s not
in the saddle, works at
the Island’s Whitehouse
Porter estate agents.
Mars is also hacked out
once or twice a week
and turned out in the
field every day.
“He’s great to hack out
unless he sees grass!”
laughs Gemma. “If you
pass a girl struggling
to get her horse’s head
off the floor or out of
the bush then that is
probably me!
“ He also prefers to hack with company
than alone, so clearly my company is not
good enough”.
Gemma and Mars have trained for
several years with Nicola Buchanan who
lives in Ringwood, Dorset, and aim to get
to her yard on the mainland for training
sessions at least once a month, whilst
Nicola comes to the Island to teach every
few weeks.
They are sponsored, aptly enough, by
Nikki Collinson chiropractic, who treats
both Gemma and Mars and keeps them
supple and in tip-top shape for their high
performance work.
Of Mars, Gemma says: “He was very
’quirky’ when we got him and has settled
down a lot over the years”.
She can recall at least one incident with
a smile, though:
“We once went to a competition and
in his defence the weather was horrible
- galeforce winds and just generally a
miserable, murky day.
“After my test, we took him back to the
lorry and after I got off, a gust of wind
blew someone’s mounting block across
the car park. As a result, Mars took off
across the car park dragging me along
with him! Refusing to let him go he
eventually stopped and a woman came
over and said “oh these youngsters, they
are cheeky.”
“I laughed and agreed thinking to myself,
‘he’s not a youngster he’s 10 years old.’”
Now of course he’s an even more
mature 12 – but Gemma says that as long
as he remains fit, sound and healthy, she’ll
be more than happy to compete with
him for as long as possible, and hopefully
keep on bringing home the trophies!
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