Amateur dressage riders count down to Team Quest kick-off
Grass-roots dressage riders are counting down to the start of the inaugural Team Quest season, with just over 2 weeks to go until the first competitions.
Team Quest is British Dressage’s latest concept aimed at encouraging riders to try dressage in a “fun and relaxed way”, even if they have never competed before.
Teams are made up of 3 or 4 riders who compete in individual classes at intro, prelim and novice level. The best 3 scores count towards an overall percentage for the team.
Each team has a name, captain and can ride in their own colours. Almost 50 teams have already registered — with light-hearted names such as “Let’s Piaffin You” and “Half Passed It” — in the 3 age categories of 16 and under, 25 and under, and mixed.
The series kicks off on 1 March, with competitions at Wellington Riding (Hants), the College of West Anglia (Cambs), Todburn (Northumberland) and Maelor Equestrian Centre (Flintshire). There are more than 75 venues hosting some 275 competitions up until 21 September.
BD Sport Operations Manager Paul Graham said: “Team Quest has really caught the imagination of riders from all over the country. We’ve enjoyed reading all about the team members and have had some fantastically creative names coming in.
“We have a team with a combined age of 221 years and our youngest team notch up just 45 years between them. Teams have been formed from riding clubs, yards, family members — we have a team of ex-racehorses and another where none of the riders know each other — they met on Facebook!
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“The response has been amazing and we can’t wait for the first fixtures.”
For more details visit the Team Quest page on the BD website, www.facebook.com/TeamQuestBD or follow @TeamQuestBD on Twitter.
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Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.