A former racehorse who was bought for £600 and is only 15hh “on her tiptoes” has made her grand prix dressage debut.
Alice Pullem and 15-year-old Cheeky Wee Red took to the centre line at Cabin Equestrian in Aberdeenshire on 26 March, where they scored 62.83% in their first attempt at the level.
Alice, who is trained by Eilidh Grant and Pammy Hutton, told H&H that at the end of the test she was “blubbering and could not believe” she and “Rosie” had done it.
“During the final centre line where you have the passage, piaffe, passage, I was thinking about watching Valegro at the Olympics. It was very emotional and just incredible,” she said.
“But I’ve never felt so ill before or during a test. When I’m competing locally I don’t usually get too worried, but when I went into the warm-up I couldn’t talk to anyone.
“In the test things could have been better, but Rosie felt fairly confident and answered everything. However in my line of one-changes I got so carried away I did 17 instead of 15! If it hadn’t been for that we would have broken the 63%.”
Alice bought Rosie in 2014 for £600 as a project to retrain and sell, but she soon decided the “wonky” mare who is “15hh on her tiptoes”, was here to stay and she became Alice’s top horse as they worked up the levels.
“Initially Rosie couldn’t get canter pirouettes because she didn’t see the point in cantering on the spot – it’s not in her make-up,” said Alice.
“But Pammy had the idea of thinking of it like American reining – we would gallop up the centre line, whirl round, then gallop out again. It was then a case of slowing her down and refining everything.”
Alice also credits her regular training with Eilidh for helping the pair refine the movements.
“Eilidh is not training a movement for a six or a seven, she’s training it for a nine or a 10, and she and Pammy have really helped us,” said Alice.
Alice has two other mares, who are “bred for the job”, High Fashion MFS who is working towards inter II level, and Jolijn T who is at advanced medium.
“Rosie is the first horse I rode up the centre line in tails. She was my first horse to get to inter I, inter II, and now she’s the first to grand prix. If you’d said to me when she came here I’d have ridden her in a tailcoat I’d have laughed, let alone ride her at grand prix,” she said.
“She is just so smart and works things out very very quickly. But she’s a feisty mare too, Eilidh has had us in the arena where we’ve gone the length of the school in reverse! Rosie can be tricky when she gets a bee in her bonnet, and it’s not always been easy – but there isn’t anything she doesn’t think she can do. I’ve learned so much from her about training horses, and when you come off her she’s always beaming. You never come off Rosie having had a bad ride.”
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