Lucy Scholl and Just Dunnit
An Eventful Life filmed all competitors on cross country at
EMDG Annual One Day Event - order or view videos here
It was a weekend of two halves for the East Midlands Dressage Group’s Annual Open One Day Event at Osberton Estate, with the Saturday classes being held in bright, glorious sunshine and the Sunday beginning in thick fog you could have cut with a knife.
I had a chat to the organiser, Chloe Cavell, at the end of the first day to find out how she felt things had gone.
“Really great” she said “Saturday is always our quieter day, Sunday will be a lot busier.”
The cross-country wasn’t timed at this event because it was most likely the first of the year for a lot of the horses and riders. “The idea was to just get everyone round and get everyone home” Chloe tells me “We’ve had a couple of fallers but nothing major and everyone is back on their feet.”
On Friday 22nd February the club unveiled their new memorial fence in memory of Ralph Mort and Alwyn Varley, long-term supporters of the riding club and their events who both sadly passed away last year. The memorial fence stood as the last fence on every course over the weekend and represents an open book to portray Ralph’s love of books. It will also serve as a canvas on which to attach plaques for future members who the club would like to commemorate.
The memorial jump served as a bright finale to a challenging but fun cross-country course. I spoke to the fence judges who were tasked with supervising this fence and they were very complimentary. One of them told me that she had revised the rules for refusals in preparation but, as it was, she needn’t have worried and it jumped exceptionally well, despite being a big, bright fence. Chloe explains that there were some bright colours on the way round and that by the time the horses got to the last fence, they shouldn’t have a problem. She was very appreciative of the hard work that Peter Wilson had put into building the memorial fence and the fact that its height can be adjusted means that it can be used for a range of classes and abilities.
This time last year, the weather was much colder and just as the team were packing up after the 2018 annual ODE, the “Beast from the East” arrived, everyone was snowed under and several events were cancelled. When I spoke to her at the end of Saturday, Chloe told me that this year was probably the best they had ever had, weather-wise. We must have jinxed something because on Sunday most of Nottinghamshire was blanketed in thick fog, leading to a three hour delay for competitors due to the lack of visibility making it unsafe to run. But, thanks to the hard work of the team, every rider managed to run and the last rider set off only six minutes after their allotted time!
Mollie Summerland and Charly Van Ter Heiden
The Open Novice sections on Sunday attracted several well-known riders preparing their horses for the rapidly approaching British Eventing season with Heidi Woodhead, Imogen Murray, Kristina Hall-Jackson, Alex Postolowsky and Richard Coney, to name just a few, making an appearance. But it was a member of the British Young Rider team at the European Championships at Fontainebleau in 2018, Mollie Summerland riding the talented, exuberant 10-year-old Charly Van Ter Heiden that won the Open Novice Section K.
This pair had an early season win in the Open Intermediate U21 at Belton International last year and their 'pipe opening' run at EMDG, winning on a score of 24.3 having added just one time penalty in the show jumping to their dressage score, is certainly a good indicator for this season
Lucy Scholl and Just Dunnit, her eight-year-old dun gelding, finished the 2018 season on a win at Norton Disney and have started the 2019 season the same way at EMDG, taking the Open Novice Section J on their dressage score of 23.5
Well done to all who worked so hard on this event, and congratulations to the riders, I hope you have a fantastic season. We’ll finish with a particular mention of our cross country video winners whose videos will be coming up soon and we’re looking forward to watching the following cross country rides at EMDG on the links below;
Intro Section A: Dawn Crichton and Rio II
Intro Section B: Laurence Hunt and Corlanau Armani
Novice Section E: Harriette Howard and Doctor of Diplomacy
Novice Section I: Christopher Whittle and PG Withernay
Open Section J: Lucy Scholl and Just Dunnit
Open Section K: Mollie Summerland and Charly Van Ter Heiden
Article by Jess Johnson
