Yesterday, Monday, January the 29th 2018 British Dressage released its “wildcard” places for the Petplan Area Festival Championship being held at Hartpurty College Gloucester in April and Twynholm, Dumfries and Galloway lass ‘Fiona Stryjewski’ with her Ten year old horse “Devon-B” a Dutch warmblood that she has owned since 2014 were awarded a place.
Fiona told DGWGO sports news “Myself and my horse Devon were awarded a place in the Medium Bronze and a place in the Advanced Medium Bronze classes.
Back in October, we took part in the regional final where the top two directly qualified for the championship and we finished third in each class narrowly missing out on direct qualification. Each year one the direct places are filled, British Dressage take the scores from all of the regional finals and award Wildcards to the highest scoring non qualified combinations – we were extremely fortunate to not just be allocated one spot, but to have been awarded two.
The most exciting part of it is the fact that we (myself and Devon) are new to both levels and in the case of the Advanced Medium we really only had enough scores to qualify and no more as it really was last summer we “had a go” to see how we would get on, so to get to a Championship on our first attempt at both is amazing.”
Fiona continued “This will be the third time we have qualified for a National final – back in 2016 we qualified for the same Area Festival Championship at the level below – elementary, but had to forfeit the ticket in order to compete in the National Winter Championships – which really was a dream come true. I am so lucky to be able to own such a fabulous horse, who really is taking me further than I could ever have wished for
As with anything – we could not do it by ourselves, I have a fabulous team of people who help make it all possible, from my parents who help me with my horses, to my friends that support me along the way, to the fabulous facilities on the yard the horses live on, the training I get from Jo Barry and Les Smith and the network of farriers, vets, horse dentists and physio’s horse and human that keep us fit and able.
I also could not have done this without the help of a grant from Stewartry Sports Council – which will help enormously in the trip to Gloucester.
Before we head to Gloucester, we will have the Scottish Regional finals to compete in at the end of February up at Morris Equestrian – so there will be no time to dwell on the achievement – we have work to do!”
