Hampshire Equine Touch Sponsored Rider

Hampshire Equine Touch is excited to announce their sponsorship of a new rider, Hannah. Hannah owns two Welsh D ponies with an age difference of 18 years, both benefiting from Equine Touch.

Meet Diego
Diego, Hannah's 20-year-old horse, is described by her as being "in the prime of his life." Since acquiring Diego at the age of 8, Hannah and Diego have shared a journey that includes relocating from Bristol to Dorset, and finally to their current yard near Reading. Over the years, they have participated in a variety of equestrian activities such as Trec, Liberty, Dressage, Jumping, and Cross Country. Additionally, they are active members of the Wellington Riding Club and enjoy regular countryside hacks.

Achievements and Goals
Hannah sets annual goals to introduce new activities for Diego. They have previously undertaken Dressage to Music, Show Jumping, and recently completed their first mini One Day Event (ODE).

Hampshire Equine Touch looks forward to supporting Hannah on this new adventure and wishes her every success for 2024 

"Diego and Our Trailblazers Journey in 2024"

Diego and I have been involved in dressage for about five years. Our journey has had its challenges, especially with our canter work being a constant struggle. Despite this, I aimed to set new goals after a friend's experience at the Sunshine tour in Intro dressage last year.

Exploring different championships, I found out about the Trailblazers Champs. To qualify for the second round, I needed to achieve over 58% in the 1st round. Winning both my Intro & Prelim classes at Enbourne Equestrian in November 2023, I secured my spot.

Unfortunately I broke my wrist at the end of 2023 and over the next 6 weeks I worked really hard with my physio to ensure that I was "fit to ride" again very soon. 

Two weeks after having the cast removed, I was back in the saddle and training. By April 2024, we headed to West Wilts Equestrian Centre for our second round qualifiers, participating in Intro & Prelim classes. While our Intro performance was good, Diego felt sluggish and tired during the Prelim test. Despite concerns, we managed a decent score of 63.91, securing 1st place in Intro & on arriving back home, I discovered that we came 6th in the Prelim, securing our spot in the Championship.

In the following months, we focused on training hard. However, I also explored more jumping with Diego and found his enthusiasm for jumping surpassed his interest in dressage. 

In June 2024, we registered for the Trailblazers Dressage Championship at Addington, scheduled for August. With five tests over three days starting from Thursday, August 8th to Saturday, August 10th, including a warm up class on Thursday, followed by two classes (Intro & Prelim) on Friday and Saturday.

The weekend before the Championship, we went to Checkendon Equestrian, securing 3rd place in Intro and 4th in Prelim. 

A week later, we made our way to Addington, a new venue for both of us. Stay tuned for our detailed report below!