Quest: Lorrie Edwards
How Lorrie and Prada went from jumping to dancing around the dressage arena together and winning their first red rosette!
Lorrie met a young and fresh Prada back in 2015, after giving up riding for 15 years, "I was riding a safe ISH called Izzy, building my confidence with riding again. I bought Prada to help someone out in December 2016 with every plan to sell her on in 2017. At this point I had only ridden her twice. That sale didn't happen due to various reasons and, I decided to keep her for a friend to compete however in June 2018 she was diagnosed with strangles which stopped her season. It was at this point that I grew attached to her, she was the centre of my world."
In 2019 they came together as a pair but it was a tough start, "After lots of falls and confidence knocks, I decided that jumping was not for me at all and that I wanted to focus on dressage, that is when I started looking at Quest and learning how BD works. We are so much happier now with dressage as she enjoys the stimulation from it and I enjoy being able to work on something where small changes can make a massive difference."
Known as the 'Accidental Purchase' - Prada is a 11 year old Belgium warmblood, bred at Zangershield, is full of character, "She can be very sensible and level headed, or she can behave like a 3 year old. She is chestnut with 3 white socks."
Despite their rocky start together they love dancing in the white boards, "Our biggest highlight was qualifying for Regionals in our first year, both for My Quest and all 4 of our Teams at our yard. We knew nothing about Quest until I looked into it, now virtually everyone on our yard is involved. It was also nice to get 1st place at both Intro and Prelim this season as Prada had never had a red rosette."
What a great start to their journey together however it is on hold for the time being, "Prada has just had kissing spine surgery so we won't be competing until March 2022. I'm currently having fun and games with long reining as Prada doesn't seem to understand that she can only walk at the moment." this will not stop them for their future plans, "We would like to finish in the top 15 of our Region, with the aim of one of our teams going to Nationals. I would also like to try my hand at a Novice test but let's see how that goes."
Away from the arena Prada likes to know she's the one in charge, "Prada is great when it is on her terms. She can behave like a toddler where she throws her toys out about doing something and 5 mins later she carries on like nothing happened. She is very cuddly but soon lets you know that she isn't happy. Driven by treats so she will do most things for a treat. Thankfully my job pays to keep Prada in paradise."
Lorrie, who is a bank advisor is trained by her livery yard owner Terri talks more about their dressage practice, "Terri works on building our confidence to try new things. I like that she pushes me out of my comfort zone and adapts her teaching style to each person student especially as I need a kick with some things, especially when I start doubting myself."
I don't think Prada is willing to give up her show jumping days just yet though, "She is very well known for jumping out of her field. She jumps a 5 bar gate at 1.15m just for fun, which we have on video. This is how we know when she is ready to be moved to another field or wants to come into her stable!"
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