A 19-year-old ‘one in a million’ and a long haul from Aberdeen: two heartfelt stories close out day four at the Winter Dressage Championships

The final classes of day four at the Petplan Winter Area Festival Championships and the NAF Five Star Winter Dressage Championship (15–19 April) at Addington Equestrian delivered two more memorable stories – a 19-year-old former eventer winning the prelim bronze in his first British Dressage (BD) season and an Aberdeen-based chartered accountant collecting a second title.

Hannah Comery won the massive, 46-strong prelim bronze Area Festival championship, which ran all day, scoring 72.06% with Ballylahive Prince.

Going early in the class, Hannah then faced a long wait. “We were on at 9am – we literally sat all day watching the scores come in,” she said. “There have been a few close ones – I was thinking ‘Oh gosh’. It’s a bit surreal.”

The test itself had a nervy start. “He was a bit upset about the commentary from the loudspeakers, so when we were going around the outside, he was a bit hot. But as soon as we went in, he just got on with it.”

Ballylahive Prince may be new to affiliated dressage – but far from new to his rider. “I’ve had him 11 years, so we know each other inside out,” Hannah said. “Which is why I wasn’t bothered when he was messing around in the prize-giving afterwards – he used to do that on the day eventing.

“He’s 19 now, would you believe,” Hannah added, with a touch of emotion in her voice. “So I was a bit thinking ‘I don’t know if I want to keep running him.’ But he was always really good at the dressage in the eventing, so we thought we’d try this. For me, he’s one in a million.”

Winter Dressage Championships: From Aberdeen to Addington

Aberdeen-based Carmen Gammie, on her own Lets Make An Opera M, won her second title of the Winter Dressage Championships, scoring 71.33% to win the Nupafeed advanced medium freestyle silver, having won the prix st georges (PSG) silver in the Winter Area Festival Championship classes earlier in the week.

“The good bits were really good,” Carmen said. “We had a bit of a mishap going into canter – a bit of a communication breakdown between the two of us. But once we got into the canter, it was really good.”

Wednesday’s (15 April) PSG silver was only their fifth outing at the level. “We want to consolidate the PSG work a bit – feel a bit more confident doing that, because it’s sort of a wing and a prayer at the moment,” Carmen said. “Maybe then we’ll try an inter I by the end of the year.”

For all the championship success, Carmen is clear-eyed about where dressage fits into her life. “I’m a chartered accountant – I work for an investment bank, so it’s kind of just an extreme hobby,” she laughed.

“I just enjoy it as long as we’re having a nice time and ticking the boxes. But he’s really coming into his own in the last year and a half. It feels like we’re unlocking potential I didn’t really know we both had.”

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