Clare Chapman from Cornwall Trec Group explains how she masterminded a daring reveal for last year’s quadrille champions’ costumes, and why she needs a patient equine mannequin...

Cornwall Trec Group (CTG) have entered the British Riding Clubs quadrille championships every year since 2012 and have qualified for the finals seven times out of eight.

Each year we raise funds for the quadrille at our gala night to pay for the costs of transporting four horses and riders to Bedfordshire for the weekend. I was inspired by watching the 2015 team and put my name down to participate with my supercob Cokey.

I’ve been to riding club dressage championships at novice level, but this was something different which required huge imagination and, most importantly, teamwork.

Each team has to choose a theme and “act out” a story with a music soundtrack and appropriate programme, with matching costumes for the riders and horses.

In 2017 I was a member of the Mary Poppins team which landed a first-ever win for CTG. I took on the role of producer and costume maker last year for the first time, to the amazement of my family who knew I had no previous crafting skills at all.

The club runs tryouts in the spring and the team chosen was Cokey and me (pictured, in blue), Sprite and Emily Dunstan, Bill and Alice McKinnon. Jamie-Lee Ball rode Reggie for selection and her mother, Claire Tegg, took over for the final as Jamie was pregnant.

We met weekly to discuss ideas and once we had a plan we introduced it to the horses to see what worked best. The horses have to enjoy the pampering and getting dressed up. Ours certainly do!

The routine has an intro, beginning, middle and end. We try to pick moves we enjoy performing, then fit them around our story and music. You have to love your song choices as you’ll get to know them extremely well.

Fellow CTG member Cathy Craddock produced our music. She’s passionate about quadrille, and being a perfectionist would tweak the music to exactly what we were after. It’s important to learn the cues and know your routine down to the second.

Emily came up with a Moulin Rouge theme and I was driving past a convent and remembered the Sister Act film. Light bulb moment! Could we strip? The plan was to enter as nuns and then strip to become cancan girls and go into a Moulin Rouge routine.

I wanted big, bold, colourful bling for the reveal, but had to ensure this was covered as much as possible with the nuns’ habits. I designed a rough costume to see if it was feasible. After weeks of thought and tweaking, I settled with a design that covered us all well, but was easy to remove quickly with one hand. Cokey was a very patient horse mannequin for my experiments. My priorities had to be safety, freedom of movement and comfort for the horses.

It took nearly 30 metres of black material to make the horses’ habits with fastenings of tiny poppers and Velcro in only the optimal places. It took me a whole day to iron and pack our costumes for the 600-mile round trip.

Fortunately, I only work part-time and was able to commandeer space above my husband’s business as a craft room. The horses wore wimples on their heads and then revealed feather plumes on top of their bridles. These were attached with a spring and had lain flat under the nun’s habit. The horses had two pieces to strip off and the riders one piece and a hat. I took it on as a challenge and loved it!

It was definitely a gamble having two costumes. Each needed to be authentic but also stay in place. I felt hugely responsible for it to work.

An unbelievable amount of work and dedication goes into quadrille, but the whole experience has been so much fun with amazing teamwork between us all. We’ve made memories to treasure and I’m so proud of our winning performance at the final. That lap of honour has to be the best feeling in the world.

H&H 20 August 2020

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An inner city riding school has produced one of the top quadrille teams in the country, qualifying for this month’s national finals at Bury Farm (22 October).

Wimbledon-based Deen City Farm finished as runners up in the selection trials for the event, just 0.5 marks away from winners Saffron Walden Riding Club.

All four of Deen City’s riders take part on school horses that are based at the centre, which is host to an inner city charity as well as a being BHS-approved riding school.

“Practicing has been incredibly difficult to fit in around the riding school commitments of the horses and ponies, but they have behaved impeccably and taken everything in their stride. We only have 11 school horses, so when four go off on a Saturday it does have an impact,” said Deen City Farm’s Joanna Henbry, who also rode in the squad this year.

“Two of the members of the team are clients who ride in a group lesson and we try and work it round that. It’s a huge amount of work to prepare, it takes us about nine months as we make everything ourselves.”

The team — who this year consisted of Jo, Katherine Whybrow, Gabby Herman and Sarah Clifford — missed out on qualification last year, so came up with a vivid Bollywood theme to get the attention of the judges.

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“After two previous unsuccessful attempts at selection, our Bollywood theme was conceived on our late evening drive home from the event in 2015,” Joanna said. “We just tried to come up with brightest, most theatrical idea we could think of.”

Other themes at this year’s SEIB Inurance Brokers’ selection trial, which also took place at Bury Farm on October 1, included Camelot, Ghostbusters, sailors and Alice in Wonderland.

Judge, Gaynor Colbourn said; “To be asked to judge the SEIB Quadrille Selection Trial was both very exciting and an honor for me. I was incredibly impressed by the costumes, stories and the music each Riding Club had created. The dedication these teams put into their quadrilles was outstanding.”

Deen City Farm and Saffron Walden will be joined at the final — which formerly took place at Olympia — by Cornwall TREC Group and Witheridge RC.

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The British Riding Club (BRC) quadrille final will no longer be held at The London International Horse Show, Olympia.

Show organisers cited timetable, parking and stabling constraints as reasons for cancelling the fixture.

From 2016 the final will be held at an alternative venue, yet to be announced.

“The Olympia horse show committee had to make the regrettable decision to discontinue hosting the BRC quadrille,” said a show spokesman. “We would like to thank everyone who has been involved for their support over the years.”

Riders have expressed their disappointment at decision.

Kent’s Moat View Riding Club was crowned winner of the final for the fifth time at December’s show.

“Having the final at Olympia gives you something to really work for — it will be a great loss,” team member Sam Prior told H&H.

“To even ride in the warm up arena and see backstage is amazing, it’s not something you normally even get to see.

“In 2012 we had the vaulters next to us and we could see them practicing their routine in the stable. Last year we saw the Household Cavalry getting their horses ready.

“It takes a year to prepare and to ride at Olympia is the icing on the cake. I don’t think it will draw as many teams if it’s not there.”

A BRC spokesman added that it was “hugely disappointing” for their members to lose the Olympia final.

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“Due to timetable constraints, as a result of their growing programme of international classes Olympia is no longer able to host the BRC quadrille finals.

“It is hugely disappointing for our members to no longer have the opportunity to compete at such a fantastic show. For many it has been the highlight of their riding life.”

An alternative venue for the quadrille final has been secured and an announcement will be made by the BRC in the near future.

Ref: H&H 11/2/16

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Saffron Walden & District Riding Club were once again victorious in the SEIB/British Riding Clubs Quadrille of the Year at Olympia, this time with a clown-themed routine.

H&H spoke to them and second-placed Bath Riding Club to find out the secrets behind their success.

The Saffron Walden riders told H&H: “It felt amazing. It was a new experience for me because it was my first year. My pony’s a jumping pony so it’s a bit of a shock for him, but he coped very well. All the ponies were great. We had a few little moments where we thought it wasn’t going to work out, but overall it was really good.”

When asked where the theme of their display came from they answered: “Because we are all on ponies and some of us can vault, we thought we wanted to do something fun and colourful where we could utilise the ponies’ cheeky nature.”

And is it difficult to fit training around work? “Two of us work with horses and one of us has an office job so we tend to work around her, but otherwise we practise at weekends in a friend’s outdoor arena. We don’t have an indoor school so we are out in all the elements – rain or hail – we have to practise in daylight as well.”

When asked how they got started in quadrille, they explained: “I did my first quadrille in 1995 and we found ourselves at Olympia! Ever since then we’ve been coming back.”

Second-placed Bath Riding Club explained how they decided on their costumes and routine for this year’s show: “We decided in the car on the way home from Olympia last year. It’s just a case of brainstorming between us what we think will be bright and colourful.

“The routine starts with toy trains sat on a carpet for endless hours. We’ve also been known to be seen running [through the routine on foot] around my street!”

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Moat View Riding Club won the quadrille at the Olympia Horse Show for the third year in a row, ahead of Saffron Walden & District, Bromyard & District Riding Club and Wye Valley Riding Club.

View Olympia quadrille pictures

Don’t miss H&H’s full report from Olympia, including the quadrille, on sale Thursday 24 December

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ONLY 6 points separated the top 3 teams in the BRC/SEIB Quadrille of the Year at Olympia, but the Battle Axes of Moat View Riding Club claimed victory for the second consecutive year.

Three of last year’s team returned to defend their title, while the fourth member, Nicky Murrell, was a member of the winning Faversham team in 2006.

The quartet performed a lively tribal dance to music ranging from Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Two Tribes to the Gladiator theme tune. They even used food colouring to dye their tongues blue for effect when they poked their tongues out at the judges.

“There is a limit to what you can do with horses in an arena, but we incorporated lots of spear movements including leg yielding from all four corners of the arena to form a 5m circle over X with our spears forming a point in the centre,” said Nicky.

Just two marks in arrears were The Mystic Krewe from Suffolk-based St Edmunds Riding Club, who were having their first attempt at quadrille.

Third-placed Wey Valley were dressed as fairground attendants and performed a wonderfully original performance with Fairground Frolics.

Filling fourth spot was Double Trouble by Essex’s Saffron Walden who fielded a team of non dressage-orientated horses aged from eight- to 24-year-olds and had handsewn 10,000 sequins to give their outfits more colour.

Results

1. MOAT VIEW RIDING CLUB (325 points) Battle Axes — A Call to Arms!

Nicky Murrell on Limerick

Amy Williams on Hortons Pink Panther

Rosemary Williams on Old Park Rose

Frances Wilson on The Marked Man

2. ST EDMUNDS RIDING CLUB (323) The Mystic Krewe

Gail Wynne-Rogerson on Miss Moneypenny

Rachel Clay on Curolea Western Robbie

Julia Woods on Elaphine Murphy

Kay Barter on Scooby Doo

3. WEY VALLEY (319) Fairground Frolics

Jane Davies on Tirmelyn Pedr

Clare May on The Mariner

Storme Whittaker on Demelza V

Phyl Young on Gazetteer

4. SAFFRON WALDEN AND DISTRICT RIDING CLUB (301) Double Trouble

Claire Engelmann on Daniel

Suzannah Engelmann on Blu-Tack

Becky Markillie on Celtic Silver Shadow

Sally-Ann Yates on My Smiley Miley

Stay in touch with all the action from Olympia on Horseandhound.co.uk throughout the show and don’t miss H&H’s full report on the quadrille in 1 January issue (on sale 2 January).

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Every point counted towards the top honours in some highly competitive dressage to music finals and the quadrille selection trial, staged by British Riding Clubs at Addington (6-7 October).

The senior novice class for competitors with British Dressage (BD) points was won by 20-year-old Charlotte Baillie and Mr Deep (South Western Dressage Group). Finishing just one point in arrears were Alison Moorhouse and Ben (South Devon).

The senior elementary section was also closely fought with Pamela Walker and Thompson (ISIS Dressage) taking the title by two points from Horsham’s Marilyn Turner on Copperfield Graffiti.

The Sid and Otter Valley Riding Club emerged victorious in the senior pairs, with Heidi Rose (Foxtrot) and Joanna Lee (Adamant) scoring four points more than Amanda Pidgley and Dawn Vear with their black ponies (New Forest Pony Enthusiasts).

Melanie Richards head the 26-strong senior novice class (no BD points) on the 14.2hh Mandalara Valentine. Beatrice Robinson rode Wattlemead Norman into second place for the Antrobus club.

Seventeen teams contested the quadrille selection trial, with the qualifying spots going to Worlington, Southerndown, Moat View and New Forest Pony Enthusiasts.

Smaller but quality fields contested the junior classes. In the section for those with BD points, Helen Turner from Woking and Bearwood Riding Club claimed victory aboard Marbon Musk, while in the no BD points section, the winner was Hykeham’s Annabelle Jepson, riding Berberry’s Blaze.

Read this report in full, including great photographs, in the current Horse & Hound (18 October, ’07)

Visit the British Riding Club’s website

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