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Cathie Wins Lesson with Dessage Star Gareth Hughes

Cathie Bowmaker, 20, recently entered a competition in Chiltern and Thames Rider to win a lesson with dressage star Gareth Hughes, courtesy of his sponsors MacWet.

 

Said Cathie: “I was in total shock when I found out I had won the competition,  I never expected it to be me!”

 

Cathie and Eric, her six-year-old TB X WB, whom she has owned for two-and-a-half years, currently enjoy competing in affiliated dressage competitions.

 

Due to a suspensory ligament injury Eric had most of the year off but is now back in full work. The pair recently competed at Novice level but were keen to to improve and gain more confidence.

Gareth, based near Banbury in Oxfordshire currently has a yard of 30 horses. He has enjoyed great success over the years riding Nurejev, Ramazzotti and Korenbloem Sandman.

 

Gareth grew up in Australia and started riding at eight-years-old.

 

Said Gareth: “Having tried Western, Showing and basically anything to do with horses I always had a pull towards dressage, I love the training involved in this discipline.”

 

Gareth started the lesson by asking Cathie to warm up as she normally would at home so that he could assess how they both work together.

 

Cathie then explained to Gareth that she would like to create a more established medium trot and also try to control his inconsistent outline.

 

Said Gareth: “You should be working at home to an elementary level if you want to compete at novice. This will make the novice work easier and prepare you for the next level of competition.”

 

Added Cathie: “I soon realised I am too soft on Eric when Gareth told me his six-year-olds are doing half pass and flying changes!”.

 

Gareth and Cathie spent the lesson working on Eric encouraging him to carry himself in a stronger outline to help him to engage his hind quarters more, so making it easier for Cathie to achieve collection.

 

Cathie concentrated on sitting back, lifting her hands and having a stronger contact to improve Eric’s paces and help to lift his shoulder.

 

Said Cathie: “We were given lots of homework to do and certainly had a reality check into how hard the professionals work, they certainly make it look a lot easier than it is!”.

 

“We are hoping to return to Gareth’s for lessons in the future as we both learnt so much and had a fantastic time.

 

“Thank you to MacWet for organising the lesson it was brilliant.”