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It is an honour to sponsor one of the most popular classes at the British Dressage National Championships. Spectators filled the seating around the arena to await the final round of judging and listen to the running commentary from ride judge Philip Hess.

Judges Susanne Baarup, from Denmark, David Hunt and Philip Hess, son of the highly regarded Christoph Hess and well respected in his own right as a test rider at the Bundeschampionate.

Top honours went to the sensational Freeman, ridden by British Grand Prix rider Hannah Biggs and owned by Equine Construction’s David and Sarah Johnson, who becomes the only horse to be awarded a 10 in the final.

In sponsoring the British Dressage Young Horse Championships we have been able to follow the journey and careers of a number of incredible horses.   There are none so famous as Valegro, who graduated from the Shearwater young horse classes, or the legacy that the Mount St John stud has created.  Another name becoming synonymous with success in British breeding and producing championship winning young horses is the Hawtins Stud.

In Hawtins Duchessa won the 4-year-old final in 2015, Hawtins San Floriana was victorious at age four, five and six from 2016 to 2018.  Now it's the turn or Hawtins Lirica who won the 4-year-old title in 2018 and now claims the 2019 5-year-old championship.

Shearwater Insurance were delighted to be able to continue their sponsorship of the British Dressage Young Horse Championships for a further year.  The young horse classes really are a highlight of the National Dressage Championships with dressage fans, breeders and riders alike flocking to the arena to listed to the comments of the ride judge in the final round of judging.

The 2019 final delivered an exciting line up of young horses, with a number of British bred horses taking centre stage.  The judging line up consisted of Susan Baarup, from Denmark, David Hunt and ride judge Philip Hess, son of the great Christoph Hess.

Last night saw another horse and rider inducted in the Eventing Riders Association (ERA) International Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials Hall of Fame. In the relaxed atmosphere of the rider’s lounge at Burghley, competing riders gathered for the social occasion, once again supported by Shearwater Insurance.

In a change to previous years, the Eventing Riders Association (International) welcomed nominations from riders, owners and the general public for this year’s horse and rider inductees.  Taking an overwhelming majority was former world number 1 and leading British rider, Oliver Townend, with his 2017 winner Ballaghmor Class leading the nominations for the equine athletes.

Well hello strangers! I'm sorry its been so long since I've written my blog but the last couple of months have been very hard with decisions needing to be made which I never expected to have to be making again so soon.

The first semi-final for the Shearwater Young Horse classes took place at Hartpury College, where future stars came to book their places for Nationals.

With quality horses forward across all three age sections it was the youngest category who scored the highest final marks with Waverley Fellini, ridden by Greg Sims finishing on 8.86.

It is an ideal situation as a horse owner to own your own yard and something many of us can only dream about, but whether you are lucky enough to have stables at your house or to rent your own space somewhere else or even run a yard, there is no doubt you are keen to make sure that they are protected.

If you have five stables, or 20, an indoor school, sand school or lunge pen every yard will look different to the next, but they are all equally as important to their owners. So, what would happen if you were broken into, or rain caused your yard to flood or a horse was injured in your care? Would you have the support in place to get you and any clients back on their feet? 

If you are in the antiques business you will be well aware that not every item in your shop is the same and this is the same for Insurance policies, one size doesn’t fit all.

At Shearwater we understand the antiques business and have specific surveyors to work with you to ensure your stock is treated as individually as it is and that is why we offer a bespoke antiques policy.

Hi Everyone, I can’t believe how quickly this year is going!

So despite some awful weather which at times I thought was going to see me doing a Wizard of Oz on LittleMan, I’ve still managed to train 4/5 a week, thank god for an indoor school! 

I started March with a competition on home soil at Abbey Dressage which was run by Cheltenham Riding Club which always helps with my warm up arena practice and competition practice which gave me a result of 64%.