Stefanie's a rising star in dressage

Stefanie's a rising star in dressage

Dressage really caught the eye in the recent Olympics and we are delighted to feature a rising star from this particular event in PembrokeshireSport.co.uk this week.

Stefanie Dando-Jones is 26 years old, and she lives in Kilgetty and works full time for the NatWest Bank, Carmarthen but she is currently on maternity leave as she and fiancé Simon have had their first baby, 'Sophie Faye', in February.

 Early start with horses

She has been riding since the age of four and did a bit of everything with pony club until focusing on dressage in 2009. We let her tell her own story!

“I only started affiliated dressage in late 2010 and my fiancé, Simon Mansell, drives the lorry so it's a real family outing when we go away competing. On the family theme I'm very lucky as I borrow the lorry of my parents-in-law to be, Betty and Byron Mansell, as well as keeping my horses on their smallholding. I have also had terrific support from my own parents, Gaynor and Tim Jones – where would we be without them?!”

'Noddy' is a top horse

“My horse is called Bellevue Irish Pride (but he's 'Noddy' to his friends!) He's a 7 year old, grey, 16.1h Irish draught/French tb/Sports horse. He was bred at Bellevue Stud in Ludchurch, Pembrokeshire by Isabel and Dave Scourfield. His sire is Royal Tartan, who evented, and his dam is Foxy Silver. I bought him in March 2011 and we have since focussed fully on dressage. We train with Glenys Hemming of Abbey Dressage, who holds regular clinics at Moor Farm, Haverfordwest and we compete as often as possible, normally twice a month.”

Fantastic season

“This season has been our best to date, which has really surprised me as I thought I would have a quiet year, but I'm very lucky to have a contented baby! The weather this year has been challenging, with funny little things like arena boards moving during my tests or the judge's car's windscreen wipers going mid-test; not the best things to keep Noddy focussed on the job. A more physical problem was needing two tractors to pull the lorry in and out of muddy lorry parks. However, with our yard being on top of a hill and with all my training done outside we are well used to getting soaked and training in wild Welsh winds!”

Quality wins

“This year we won the Hickstead qualifier at Broome's, the home of famous Olympian David Broome and his family. We won the Sue Carson Welsh Championships and had the highest score of the whole show. We then went to Hickstead for the Dressage Masters and won my class out of the 11 that are competed for there. Hickstead was awash with mud so it took two tractors to pull us out!”

“We also competed at the Addington Summer British Dressage Regional finals, which we won, so we are off to the British Dressage National Championships in September – and there will be 15 separate classes so there so it is easy to see how well-known that event is – and it is our biggest competition to date.”

Future focus

“After the nationals I want to focus on training to improve my medium paces ready for next year, and sometime in the future I want to try some dressage to music. This was very popular in the Olympic Games and I would have to have the music composed by an expert in that field who would watch Noddy and I as a pair and decide what would suit our needs – and then it would take lots of practice to get him to work to the sounds. It would be lots of patient work but I think it would be great fun!”

Dressage has easy access

“Dressage is a fantastic sport and can be done relatively cheaply at a local level with classes starting for as little as £10 per class and there are many riding clubs around Pembrokeshire which welcome new members and will support you.
The costs increase as one travels around the country in an ever-widening arc to gain the experience to get higher up the ladder but that is all in the future for newcomers. We would be greatly helped if we could be granted some sponsorship and so if there are any local businesses that fancy sponsoring us then please get in touch, company logos can go on all our kit and will be seen around the country!”