𝑲𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑨𝒍𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒕 & 𝑬𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒆𝒕𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒔
On Wednesday 1st October, Ellie Roberts and Koning Albert competed in the Petplan Dressage Festival at Arena UK, Grantham — which also happened to be Ellie's birthday! 🎉
This was only their fourth time riding an Advanced Medium Freestyle to Music, and with Berti still very new to this level, there were naturally some green moments reflected in the marks. Flying changes remain a work in progress — at one point Berti decided that a jumping-style change was a better idea, which unfortunately cost them valuable marks. But given that Ellie only rides him once a week, it is a huge credit to both horse and rider that they are confidently contesting tests of this standard.
Despite these challenges, the pair produced a smooth and harmonious test, scoring a very credible 66.278%. They held their own against seasoned European Team horses now ridden by new jockeys, as well as combinations with far greater experience at this level. To even be in this company is a real accomplishment, and a promising start for what is still a very new partnership at Advanced Medium.
A special thank you goes to Ellie, not only for giving up her birthday to pilot Berti in the arena, but also for being such a wonderful and sympathetic rider. And of course, an enormous thank you to Abbie Denham for once again kindly lending us her lorry while ours is still in pieces at the mechanics!
We are incredibly proud of how far this partnership has come already, and excited to see what lies ahead.