FOREST rider Bryony Goodwin took the 2024 LeMieux National Dressage Championships by storm, winning a title hat-trick.
The Elton-based horsewoman's success at Cheshire’s Somerford Park followed her first national title last year riding her own Dion II to the HorseQuest Elementary Gold crown.
This time, she firstly took the PSG Silver title on Antonia Brown’s 13-year-old gelding Krack DE, scoring 69.88% to pip Amanda Towle Shaw and Rockwood Virtue – a team bronze medallist at the young rider European Dressage Championships – on 69.29%.
Next day, she was the headline story doubling up to win the TopSpec Medium Gold with nine-year gelding Dion II, receiving an amazing 72.621% from the five judges, beating Michael Elberg and De La Hoyde into second with 71.514%.
And then on day four, she and Dion II triumphed again scoring 73.868% in the Bret Willson International Advanced Medium Silver Championship for a treble, also taking second with Krack DE on 70.526%.
Describing the hat-trick as "unbelievable", she said: “I was really pleased. Dion is quite new to Advanced Medium, he only stepped up a couple of months ago, so I didn't have any expectations of him, I just wanted to have a good confidence-giving round...
"I just go in thinking ‘we're just going to give it our best shot and do the best we can’, and then to come out on top is just the icing on the cake...
“I think it's really important that the horse is the happy athlete. They've got to be allowed to be horses. If they're not happy, how can we expect them to perform their best for us?” added Bryony, who is sponsored by Sue Mason of Newhunt Equine & Country Store.
On the help of coach Sarah Pincus, she added: "She has such a good eye and gives me confidence in what I'm doing. I couldn't do it without her."
And on her parents Colin and Di's support, she said: "“They absolutely love it. They're so thrilled as well. They've been there alongside me through all the years of hard work."