Saffron Walden & District Riding Club have had a formidable reputation in the British Riding Clubs Quadrille competition in the past with an as yet unsurpassed 5 wins under their belts, but in recent years they have struggled for inspiration and have not contested the competition for a couple of years. This year they were back with a completely new concept.
The team knew their routine would be a bit of a gamble as it was taking quadrille to a ‘different’ level but they were willing to give it a go and see how it was received. With this in mind 4 riders and 4 supporters made the long journey to Aintree to contest the selection trial.
This year the team were mounted not on their usual 16.2hh horses but on 4 ponies, 13.0hh-14.0hh, most of whom have proved themselves wholly unsuitable as children’s ponies. 3 of the ponies are more at home doing mounted games than dressage so it was a bit of an ask for them to try and look presentable, but the ponies turned out to be more than obliging and after a crash course in flatwork they performed the routine looking very smart. The performance went like clockwork and from the amount of clapping and cheering it received the crowd at least obviously loved it!
Then came the moment of the truth…. What did the judges, two of whom were dressage judges, think? The judges enjoyed it too and Saffron Walden topped the scoreboard, thereby qualifying to go forward and do it all again at Olympia.
Olympia dawned in mid-December and the team travelled down by Landrover and trailer in order to avoid the excessive LEZ charge for non-compliant horseboxes. Vicky Rutherford kindly pulled one trailer and Julian Midwinter lent his vehicle to the team to tow the other (thank you to Deborah and Marilyn for lending their trailers too).
The ponies settled at Olympia very well and although some were a little spooky during the warm up session everyone was relatively happy. During the turnout session the ponies began to get a bit uptight and refused to stand still. We had kept our costumes simple to our theme, but knew we would be marked down because of this, our simple white uniforms costing £50 per member could never compete with the extravaganza of colour and detail of the other teams.
Finally it was our turn to perform our quadrille. Some of the spooky ponies showed their colours, and refused to go past the decorative shrubs marking the arena. Other ponies led on and showed the way, however the performance was not one of our finest moments, and although no mistakes were made it was not as tight as rehearsed, resulting in second place for the team.
