Wednesday 27th March we had 3 teams of 4 riders (12 Riders in total) compete at the Canterbury Secondary Schools Dressage Championships.

The riders and horses/ponies were faced with wild weather of wind, rain, hail & sunshine. These were very challenging conditions to ride in with the wind blowing arenas over and sent portaloo's tipping over. Our horses and riders showed amazing resilience and coped extremely well.

Congratulations to all riders on your achievements. Congratulations to Tia Miller for placing 1st and Shiloh Bailey for placing 3rd in your class of 30 riders.

This competition saw many of our riders taking on new challenges with riding in a higher level than they normally would to be able to have their chance to ride and represent their school in the sport they love. For riders this will be something they will carry with them for year it will be something they don't forget. I'm proud at DHS we give our students opportunities to challenge themselves and give things a go and the staff and families of DHS support the students.

We had an awesome team of parents support the riders leading up to the event and throughout the day. Thank you for parents for videoing, calling tests, taxiing riders and ponies, ensuring riders are presented as required. Thank you to the Maley's for the use of your arena for our Team Training's leading up to the event. Thank you to Lesley Whellans for your time and judges inside knowledge you shared with the riders to help them prepare for the day. Thank you to Pip Allan for being a test writer all day for the judges. Lastly thank you to all the riders for the hours of effort you put into practicing your tests, presenting yourself and you horse/pony beautifully for the event, thank you for the resilience and teamwork you showed throughout the day! You are all amazing!

We return to school Wednesday 3 April which is Day 5 of the timetable.