'Will the double bridle disappear?'

Laura Tomlinson on snaffles at grand prix and the impact of social licence

- Polly Bryan

THE summer competition season is now in full swing, and last week I had the privilege of competing with three lovely horses at the wonderful CDI show at Wellington Riding in Hampshire. The team there do such a marvellous job of creating a friendly yet professional atmosphere at their showground.

Having had a very muddy Royal Windsor and Hickstead CDIs in the weeks before, at Wellington we found ourselves at the other end of the extreme, with the heat making for a rather sticky mess of suncream, sweat and dust.

I was riding Full Moon, our home-bred seven-yearold, on the first day of the show, when his shoe went flying past me and ended our warm-up before we’d even got going. I can honestly say this is something that has never happened to me at a competition.

Luckily, the local farrier came and stuck it back on, and the following day “Moony” went into the sevenyear-old World Breeding Championships selection class. Though a little hot, he strutted his stuff into first place, which was a great start to the show for me.