Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2011 | Page 86

EQUESTRIAN

Gemma's hard work pays off
Three years of dedication and hard
work on the mainland have brought
their rewards for Island dressage rider
Gemma Maddocks.
Gemma has been training and
working at Judy Harvey’s yard in
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire,
and the endeavours paid off when
she and her horse Wustensand won
the International Dressage Young
Riders Team Championship Test at
Hickstead.
Gemma has had 11-year-old
Wustensand for the past three years,
and said: “I feel he has come on leaps
and bounds since we went on the
mainland. His scores have improved
and he has gone up the levels, which
is all good. There were about 20
competing in the Hickstead event, not
just from England but from Europe as
well. It was Gemma and Wustensand’s
second Hickstead appearance. They
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competed at junior level two years
ago, finishing fifth, so her success was
another big step in the right direction.
Earlier in her career Gemma did not
specialise in one discipline, but that
changed when she acquired a pony
which started doing well at dressage,
and that soon won her over. She is
currently in the GB under-21 Progress
squad, and her aim is to make the
European team next year, and must
have an excellent chance as she beat
several of her main rivals at Hickstead.
She said: “I will have GB
under-21squad training during the
winter, and then I have to keep going
next summer competing wherever
I can to get enough good scores to
hopefully be picked for the under-21
team.”
Gemma and Wustensand have already
made the step up to Intermediate
One level, and have recently enjoyed

mainland success. Now Gemma plans
to stay on the Island for much of this
winter, and will then decide whether
she can maintain the high standards
she has reached while still living here,
or whether she will have to move back
to the mainland in the spring.
But she has made up her mind to
stick to dressage, saying she enjoys the
challenge of building the partnership
with Wustensand, and teaching him
moves that are natural to him. She
said: “It took us a good 18 months
to click, but now I feel we work well
together. We are marked out of 10
in competition, so we are constantly
working to try to get that next mark
up. I love competitions, so it is good
to go out and compete against riders
from all over the world, and hopefully
next year will be our year.”