Riders join the Quest for a place in the Scottish finals

Quest club is a grassroots competition affiliated to British Dressage which aims to encourage riders to compete in both individual and team classes in order to gain points to qualify for the Scottish Quest final.

Winning teams and individuals from the Scottish final are then invited to compete, along with the other BD regions, in the UK final in October of each year.

The Scottish final will be held at Highfield at Howe this year so this event proved an ideal training opportunity for combinations unused to competing at the centre as well as valuable league points for local teams.

Alongside Quest club classes, Howe Country Centre also run British Dressage classes at all levels from Intro to elementary in addition to unaffiliated sections in each class.

With more than 120 entries for the day, the classes began with walk/trot tests with Mirren Hay and her Highland pony Bowmore Ben Cruachan clinching the first My Quest Intro class from Howe regular, Aimee Swinley riding Liddesdale Sovereign by a single point.

Aimee and Liddesdale Sovereign are in their first year of Quest competition and are successfully accruing points for a place in the Scottish final.

Although a relatively new partnership of five months, Aimee and Sovereign have had success at dressage and working hunter competitions and Aimee is aiming towards showing this season and would love to qualify for HOYS.

With four teams competing in the Team Quest challenge, the winners by a small margin were the HiHo Highlands from the Fife Fillies in second, East Neuk Natives in third and Bucking Bonkers in fourth.

There was only one junior team competing, the Kingdom Stars composed of Emma and Rebecca Hooley and Libby Clark so it was 10 points on the Scottish leader board for them.

Entries are now open for the first showing show of the season on April 8/9.