Evelina Shrieve and Insist TC – known as “Terry” at home – scored a remarkable double on day two of the 2024 NAF Five Star Winter Dressage Championships winning the Equitex Advanced Medium Silver Championship (69.29%) and the Nupafeed Advanced Medium Freestyle Silver Championship (73.5%).
“In the straight advanced medium we did a nice, smooth test – it wasn’t the best but I was pleased with how it went because there weren’t any obvious mistakes,” said Evelina. “We took him back to the stables in between his tests, loosened his girth, ran a damp cloth over him, but then I was back on within half an hour for the freestyle.
“I was so pleased with the music class – we’ve never been in an indoor atmosphere like that before. I only joined British Dressage (BD) three years ago. I bought Terry later that year, and he’d not done much either, so we’ve been climbing up the tanks together – I love him.”
It’s certainly been a rapid rise for Evelina who started working for the Thurman-Bakers in exchange for some riding three years ago during a summer break from Loughborough University.
“They were very local to me, and I starting doing a couple of days a week for them and because I didn’t go back to uni while we were in lockdown I stayed – and I’ve been there ever since.
“A lot of this success is down to training with Samantha Thurman-Pickett, who helped me with the floor plan and let me borrow her music.”
It’s been a busy week in more ways than one for Evelina, who also competed, and experienced a few hi-jinks, with “super cob” Carelue Celtic Choice in the Petplan Prix St Georges (PSG) Winter Area Festival Championship yesterday (10 April) and has been collaborating with BD and Horse & Country TV to create content on the championships.
“I run an equestrian podcast with Joanna Thurman-Baker called That’s Lame and throughout the nationals we’re doing the social media side of things, interviewing riders, and filming behind the scenes,” Evelina explained.
“I was filming 20 minutes before the prize-giving, and Terry was lying down in the stable asleep, with his plaits out! I was so lucky Joanna was with me to help me quickly fix the plaits and bandage him, but in retrospect it was a relief to do it that way because when you’re waiting for scores to come in you just end up staring at the screen
“It was nice to have the distraction of doing something else and finding out the scores later.”
2024 Winter Dressage Championships: “I can’t fault him”
Bethany Edginton and six-year-old gelding Nelson HD, who is owned by Karen Redfearn, have been another prolifically busy combination.
Together they won the Petplan Elementary Silver Area Festival Championship on 73.23% but were also 17th in the stacked Prestige Novice Gold Winter Championship (68.39%) and fifth in both the Horsehage Preliminary Gold Winter Championship (70.46%) and the Bailey’s Horse Feeds Novice Freestyle Gold Winter Championship (72.87%).
“Karen bought him at the beginning of last year after we’d lost our last horse quite suddenly, so he came at the right time and he’s been ace ever since,” said Bethany, who had to overcome the odds to qualify for the winter championships.
“He had a sinus infection and was in the equine hospital getting his face flushed out, it smelt terrible – like a foot abcess. He came out of the hospital four days before regionals, but the vets gave him the all-clear to compete and he was fantastic.”
Nelson was bought from Jezz Palmer – who has been one of the competitions leading riders. “When we went to try him, Jezz said to me ‘He’s a Lamborghini you’ve got to use the engine,’ but I didn’t dare use the engine! I’d never ridden anything like him.
“But we’ve clicked with him now, and these last few months everything has dropped into place – I can’t fault him.”
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