© Jon Bromley Photography © Jon Bromley Photography
EVENTING AND DRESSAGE
Abi Scott ( Lower Sixth ) has been riding since she was four and competes at national level , with the help of her horses , Barney , Ronnie , Chance and Louis .
The past 18 months has been a whirlwind experience , from lockdowns to working with young horses to competing – locally , nationally and even internationally . Initially my training possibilities were restricted , but this led to unexpected opportunities . With GCSEs cancelled , I bought Chance , broke him in myself and produced him up the levels in both eventing and dressage , winning three out of the four of his events and being crowned both Pony Club Open Novice National Champion and Riding Club Winter Prelim National Champion . The experience of breaking in a pony was incredibly beneficial for my riding .
With Barney and Ronnie , maintaining a good structure to my training and keeping our programme varied and interesting was very important in continuing our progression . I spent time researching different exercises to keep both me and the horses at the top of our game , focusing on varying areas of training . Before lockdown , dressage wasn ’ t something I was particularly interested in , but after spending months focusing on developing this area and learning new skills , I found a passion for it and have competed up to British Dressage Medium level with goals of stepping up to Advanced Medium .
Barney and I have since gained some impressive results , including representing England in the South & East Squad at the British Dressage Youth Home International in Wales , placing eighth in GB .
Another great result was placing fourth in both the Novice and Elementary U21 classes at British Dressage Winter Nationals . We were also selected to represent the UK in the Pony Club International Alliance Dressage competition , taking both individual and team gold . As well as this , we qualified for the Pony Club Dressage Nationals at Open level , winning our section out of 37 competitors and coming overall sixth in the ride-off in the UK . The cherry on top was being crowned NSEA ( National Schools Equestrian Association ) Elementary National Champion at Hickstead at the end of the summer .
I have also successfully competed in eventing on both Ronnie and Barney this year , gaining multiple top ten placings at British Eventing . Ronnie qualified and placed fourth in the Pony Club Intermediate Eventing Championships , around a very technical and testing course at Offchurch Bury . These results gained our place at the U18 Youth Eventing Championships , representing the South East region .
This year I also started training for my AH exam , aiming to take it next summer after my IB . Learning about the biological aspects of riding and the horse ’ s anatomy has been particularly interesting and something I ’ d love to continue researching .
The Sports Journalism Club , run by Sarah Eversfield , has pitched to local and school publications . Excellent contributions have been made by Chris Oldfield , Rhea Jajodia and Paul Taylor in Year 8 ; George Kelly ( Year 7 ); Joseph Oldfield ( Year 9 ); Oliver Brooke ( Year 10 ) and Grace Park ( Lower Sixth ).
SEVENOAKS SCHOOL 2020-2021 105