Page 49 - 103RA 2018-20

Equestrian
By Cpl Gallagher
While always being a keen horse rider, when an advert came up in the RA magazine in 2015, I jumped at the chance to ride in Military events.
I first rode for the RA later that year at the famous Cross-country course at Larkhill.
Woody was a saddle
club horse who had a few quirks, but I managed to get him round the Larkhill course.
Saddle club horses were far and few between and with my own horse retired I looked for alternative horse hire. A stable in The Cotswold had a scheme where you could hire horses for military events so in 2016 I did just that. I rode Mr Fox and rode at Windsor then paraded in front of the Queen on her 90th Birthday.
Then in 2017 I rode for the RA on a horse called Sensible, after lots of training we were selected for Windsor. My team came 7th in the non-working horse’s section.
Later that year after various events I was chosen to ride for the Reserves Team and compete in the prestigious Saumur Cup. In 2017 it was held in France at the Saint Cyr Coetquidan Military Academy. It was potluck which horse they gave you, but I got a lovely mare called Lisette. My team won the overall trophy. This was an amazing trip.
In 2018 I loaned Nelly (Wallis Simpson) and riding for the RA we trained and competed in Show Jumping and Dressage. At the Royal Tournament we were in the rosettes, both team and individual.
After being successful on the Royal Artillery team I wanted to see if I could make it onto an Army Team. Through the Winter of 2018 our training was progres- sively heading towards the discipline of Dressage. I trained a lot at home and in 2019 we made the Army Development Squad. I was successful at a civilian event that summer gaining second overall place.
We also had successes at Addington being picked for the Army team for the
Loriners cup and being on the winning team. We were improving and in August that year we made the Army Dressage Team.
Last but not least, in November 2019 I won the best Army Development team rider at the Army Equitation Awards Dinner at Larkhill. We now look forward to 2020/2021 which hopefully we can get back to in the not-too-distant future.
Regimental Journal 2018-20
Woody was a saddle club horse who had a few quirks
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