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Winning four-star eventer in the ribbons at dressage championships with teenage rider

Martha Terry Martha Terry

    • A 13-year-old rider proved her versatility as she steered two very different horses onto the podium at the 2024 Petplan Winter Area Festival Championships. Annabelle Wesley rode the 15-year-old Welsh pony Armada Dyffryncothi Bridget to finish runner-up in the elementary bronze under-21 Area Festival. She backed this up with a third place in the silver on four-star eventer Caroline’s Air KM. There is three hands’ height difference between her two rides, with Bridget standing at just 14.1hh.

    Annabelle scored just shy of 70% on Caroline’s Air KM, who belongs to her grandfather, event horse owner Trevor Dickens. Trevor’s most famous eventer is the Badminton and Burghley winner Vanir Kamira, whom Annabelle has also been competing in dressage – and winning on – this year, since the mare’s retirement from eventing with Piggy March.

    But this week it was the turn of another of Trevor’s top-flight campaigners, the 2023 Mallow CCI4*-L winner Caroline’s Air KM, to shine between the white boards. The 11-year-old Cassirado mare had been evented by Izzy Taylor since 2021, but has started this season under Max Warburton.

    “She’s still eventing, but is on a break having a bit of fun with me,” said Annabelle. “She feels really good, so nice to ride, and I’m so happy I get to ride her, but being 17.1hh she’s a bit different to my pony. I don’t really know how I adapt, I just try my hardest, but the movement is a lot different.”

    Annabelle Wesley rides Armada Dyffryncothi Bridget at the Petplan Area Festival Championships 2024

    Annabelle on Armada Dyffryncothi Bridget at the Petplan Area Festival Championships

    Armada Dyffryncothi Bridget was mid-division in her medium test earlier in the week, but here scored 67.06%, shaded into second by 0.74% by Gabriella Kozersky on Hollywood Semilly.

    “She’s an amazing pony, who always tries really hard and just loves her job,” said Annabelle, who has been competing the Geler Storm-sired pony for 18 months.

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    Martha Terry
    Martha Terry

    H&H features editor
    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.
    Martha Terry

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