Buchan RC's dressage to music team dance at the riding club championships

SIX riders from Aberdeenshire's Buchan Riding Club made the journey to the British Riding Clubs Dressage to Music, Winter dressage and Quadrille Championships at Arena UK, Lincolnshire, where Buchan's Quadrille team took third place.

Over a busy three days, five riders took part in the Dressage to Music, with four competing in the Winter Dressage and four in the Quadrille.

Michele Helliwell with Auchiries Midnight Blossom and Kath Mayberry on Jacob TS were in the Novice points section of the DTM, and although neither were placed, the horses behaved well in the imposing arena. Mandy Sall and Worsenden Liberty were seventh in a strong DTM Elementary class.

Kath and Jacob completed an Elementary and a Novice, while Gemma Smith (Trevallion Spritzer) took part in Prelim and Novice tests. Michele and Rachel Duthie (Miss Molly Mackerel) rode the Pairs DTM, along with a Novice and Prelim each respectively. Mandy and Liberty took part in the Medium DTM, and again were placed seventh.

What is Quadrille?

The British Riding Clubs Quadrille competition consists of a display set to music with a team of four riders wearing themed costumes. The displays demonstrate horsemanship, but aren’t necessarily based on dressage movements.

Each team display in the Quadrille tells a story with all riders playing an active part and it can take several months, and many hours, for teams to prepare for the Quadrille championship performances.

In addition to arranging the choreography, a story and music, costumes for both riders and horses are generally homemade.

The Buchan Riding Club team consisted of Rachel, Gemma, Michele and Donna Wiseman with Chip.

Michele said: "We started with turnout judging, where three judges scrutinise all aspects of the turnout and costumes. They miss very little and award scores for this.

"Then, it's back into the arena for the performance - the audience are packed in and the atmosphere is electric. This can get to some of the horses, but all of ours behaved well.

The theme for Buchan was Space Unicorns."

Here is Buchan's synopsis which is given to the judges and read out to the audience.

"We did the best run through we have ever done, no-one went wrong and the audience loved it, with lots of extra clapping and cheering. At the end of the night we were placed third," said Michele.

After celebrating their best result ever, the following day Rachel did her Prelim DTM and Gemma her Novice 0 Points DTM with Gemma 13th out of 32 competitors.

Michele added: "We just want to say thanks to everyone who supported us and made donations and to Aberdeenshire Club Sport for their travel grant."

The Quadrille team in their outfits.