'Klaus Balkenhol wanted to see it'

Laura Tomlinson on competition plans and scoring the warm-up

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THE Winter Dressage Championships at Addington were a fabulous opportunity for British horses to experience a bustling and atmospheric competition venue. My home-bred Full Moon certainly could do with some more practice!

He felt fabulous at the smaller shows and in the warm-up at Addington, but I lost his focus going into the ring. He didn’t lose his head or get stressed but nothing flowed the way it should have and little mistakes crept in as I was wrestling the tradestands for his attention.

It’s fantastic to have competitions like that across the levels to prepare our young horses for bigger occasions in the future and the experience has strengthened our partnership even if it was not our best.

Next for me will be Hickstead Premier League with four of my horses, two of which are home-breds. I decided to take a little more time with them before competing at international level as they’re still very much in the consolidation phase of the grand prix work and we stood to lose more by rushing them than we could gain.

PERFECT HARMONY