Aaliyah and George's dreams come true as they take part in Badmintion Grass Roots and Windsor Horse Show dressage Home International

DEVERON Pony Club member and team stalwart Aaliyah Watson and her Connemara pony Killeneen George qualified for and completed 2026 Badminton Grass Roots at BE90 level last month, before meeting with her fellow PC dressage riders to compete at Windsor Horse Show as a successful and emotional end to their competititve partnership.

Aaliyah brought on George with the help of a team of instructors she has worked with for years to turn him into an eventing star, with the culmination being a successful trip down south to Badminton, then a 4th place in the Scottish dressage team for the Home International at Windsor, along with 4th individually.

Here, Aaliyah recounts her journey to Badminton Grass Roots and their experiences there as she prepares to hand over George's reins to the next lucky young rider who will now benefit from his talents.

Badminton and Royal Windsor 2026 - what an adventure!

By Aaliyah Watson

THE last few weeks before we set off to Badminton Grass Roots was all about our preparation and ensuring that George and I were as ready as we could be.

This involved increasing our fitness plan so that our canter intervals were up to six minutes, as I knew George had to be the fittest he had ever been to cope with the length of course at Badminton as well as the difference in temperature. 

I had my last lessons with my three coaches and was fortunate enough to go down to an eventing camp at Strathearn Eventing with Sarah Houlden, along with my fellow pony club members at Deveron.

This was an excellent two days and allowed me to focus on more testing and technical lines as I knew the championship course at Badminton would be the most challenging one yet for us.

Our last couple of showjumping lessons with David Harland focused on building my confidence as for some reason I always find the showjumping phase the most nerve-racking even though George never lets me down. 

My flatwork lessons with Erik Mackechnie-Guire involved a wee tune up for us both and running through our dressage test, focusing on the areas where we could pick up extra marks. 

Importantly, we also factored in three events prior to Badminton - Northallerton and Kirriemuir were both BE90cm and we came home in second place at both. We then made the decision to step up to BE100 at Penrith and I was delighted to finish with a double clear. 

A carefully planned journey

A trip across to North Mains Equestrian to pick up our haylage and shavings, which was donated as part of my sponsorship this season, something we are very grateful for, and this was the start of our prep for packing the lorry.

It’s amazing how much stuff you need when you’re going away for 16 days!

We set off on Friday 1st May once I had finished my Higher English exam that morning and we carefully planned our journey to ensure that George had plenty of rest in between travelling - we had a six-hour drive down to Greenlands Equestrian at Carlisle for our first overnight stop.

On Saturday we set off to Warwickshire which was our base for two nights, stabling with Erik and Russell.

This allowed George plenty of recovery time before our final leg on the Monday afternoon where had a short 90-mile journey to Badminton. George settled into his stable well at the Grass Roots event, as he usually does, and we set up the lorry and went off to explore. 4

A challenging cross country

I did my first course walk on the Monday when we arrived along with Mum and Leanne, the cross country had 21 fences of which five were doubles and two were trebles - it certainly looked challenging.

The combination at fence nine really stood out to me and I ended up taking several videos and sending them to Sarah to discuss how best to approach it. 

The grounds at Badminton were stunning and involved a lot of walking, we definitely got our steps in! 

The dressage took place on the Tuesday and George was feeling amazing as I was warming him up, I’m usually never pleased with my test, always thinking that I could have done better, but I finished and felt that we had tried our absolute best - I even managed to smile. Our scores reflected how I felt as we sat 9th overnight and 14th by the time the dressage phase was completed. 

Next up was the showjumping and having walked the course I knew that the two double combinations would be difficult as they’re always set for horse strides and George just has little legs in comparison the some of the other horses that were there.

I was right to think they would be difficult as although we easily managed the one stride double we took a pole in the second part of the two stride double which was entirely my fault after we had a bit of a miscommunication.

Understandably I was gutted as that extra four penalties moved us right down the leaderboard, in some respects though this took the pressure off before I went on the cross country. 

After a pep talk with Sarah, and then Lisa, we were all set to go out for our last cross country together - we couldn’t have asked for a better track to end our incredible journey. George felt great and this was always our favourite phase together. 

We set off from the start box with our wee support team dotted around the track to cheer us on and capture the moments on videos. I was clear in my head on the lines I was taking after walking the course again the night before but what I wasn’t prepared for was the amount of spectators, particularly at the water complex.

This year the water was fence six, early in the course. We galloped up past Badminton House, I had a wee claim to fame there as George and I were the combination featured in the Fairfax & Favour reel and came round the corner to the water combination to find rows of people standing watching!

I’ll be honest, this overwhelmed me somewhat and instead of steering George to part A we went right past it. However a quick re-present at the first part and we were away. 

Then we began to fly, settling in and really revelling in the trust we had built. There are so many smiley photos as we took on the most testing technical track.

But this was our last cross country track together before George was put up for sale, and my tears flowed as we negotiated the final jump.

Not a dry eye

I was amazed at how quickly George recovered after the cross country had finished, all our preparatory work ensured he was fit enough to complete the track at Badminton, I was proud we got him to the level we needed, it was certainly challenging given the winter we had. 

There wasn’t a dry eye in our group.

A bittersweet moment where adrenaline and huge amounts of pride met a realisation that our time was almost up. 

We were lucky to be able to stay for the entire 5star event, the experience of watching the world's best riders round the track will stay with me forever. Seeing Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo ride round with what looks like such ease was amazing. 

After Badminton we headed back to Erik and Russell’s for a few days for some down time and to prepare for the Home International Dressage competition.

We had been selected to be part of the Scottish Team, of which which I’m incredibly proud - this added to our selection of being on the Scottish Youth team for the British Eventing Championships at Chillington in September last year. 

A lesson from Erik helped me prepare for what was probably our most difficult test to date, but George was up for the challenge.

We enjoyed a lovely meal on the Thursday night with the rest of the Scottish team, this was a great opportunity to get to know each other. 

Success at Windsor Home International

Riding at Windsor was yet another dream come true and to be placed 4th as an individual, against the top dressage riders was the icing on the cake.

George tried his heart out, as he always does, despite him desperately needing a wee! Riding the test was really emotional as I knew this was our last ever competition and at times, I found it difficult to complete myself - but George knew what he needed to do. 

The Scottish team were placed 4th and we all came away with the most amazing memories from Windsor. 

George is without doubt one heck of a pony, but our partnership is another level, and at Badminton and Windsor, we proved that. 

As I sit recovering from a momentous time I’ve experienced so many emotions. It’s been a journey of highs, experiences and learning. I have laughed and cried a lot!

But most of all, I’m thankful that George and I made it back safe and sound, having lived a dream in the best way possible - together.

Now it’s time for him to move on to his next young rider as they start their journey together and create the best memories.

I will be forever grateful to George, I set us some pretty big goals and he joined in, never questioning anything and together we achieved them. 

Now I have my two young horses, Blake and Mickey, to bring on and I’m looking  forward to the many adventures we’ll have together. 

Aaliyah and her Scottish team members at Windsor Horse Show.