Dannie Morgan, Sadie Smith, and Gracie Catling each won three titles at the NAF Five Star Winter Dressage Championships, which ran from April 15 to 19. Morgan claimed gold in the Nupafeed advanced medium freestyle on Kristina Rausing’s Belinski with a score of 72.33%. Amateur riders Bethany Edginton and Jessica Allen secured silver medals in their respective classes.
The championships concluded with a rare three-way tie for the top spot. Dannie Morgan became the third rider to reach three titles, joining Sadie Smith and Gracie Catling. “The last couple of times, it’s been Sadie and me at the top. But now you’ve got Gracie up there too – and she’s only 22,” Morgan said after her winning performance set to Imagine Dragons tracks compiled by Tony Hobden at Equidance. Belinski, previously ridden by Henry Boswell, showed talent despite being a newer partnership for Morgan, who praised Catling’s mare Fraithwens Wytske Fan Ter Lune as a superstar after Catling took silver in the class with 72.33% not holding for gold but securing her position in the tie. Gracie Catling, 22, earned silver here on Gaynor Morris’ Friesian mare, adding to her breakout week. Bethany Edginton and Nelson HD took silver in the Spillers medium freestyle with 73.06%, marking her first title after two runner-up finishes earlier in the week. “I thought we were going to get pipped – we were in the lead for ages,” Edginton said after a tense wait, her freestyle set to Pirates of the Caribbean music that suited Nelson’s dramatic personality. She trained with both Nelson, a traditional dressage horse, and her Irish cob Lakeview Buddy, calling them chalk and cheese. Jessica Allen and Hendrewen Desserts Lady won prelim silver in the Petplan Winter Area Festival Championship classes with 71.03%, also after a long wait. “That was brutal,” Allen said of checking results, noting it was their best ride yet on the 12-year-old Welsh section D mare bought as a pandemic project. The pair finished sixth in novice on Friday amid over 30 entries per class.
