Festival Focus: Hard work rewarded for three winning partnerships

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of seeing all your hard work come together in the competition arena. For Sophie Chatwin, Luke Barclay and Jennie Wolfe, their Petplan Area Festival performances brought exciting wins and unforgettable moments. We find out more about their journeys, their horses and their plans for the future. 

Sophie Chatwin and Dare to Be CS

Brook Farm 

Brook Farm Petplan Area Festival took place between 7 - 9 August, where Sophie Chatwin & Dare to Be CS won both the Advanced Medium Silver and Prix St Georges Bronze with great scores of 67.89% and 65.10% respectively.  

Sharing more about the experience and how it felt to walk away with both wins, Sophie shared, “It is fabulous to win one class but to win two with a 3% lead in both is incredible, I was over the moon with her! I went wrong in the Advanced Medium class, so I let her down there, but she tried her heart out for me.” They have only previously done a few Prix St Georges tests, so to win at an Area Festival is an incredible achievement.  

Sophie shared that one of her favourite moments was cantering down the final centre line in the Prix St Georges, knowing that they had done a good job. Sophie has been competing at the Area Festivals for an amazing 17 years, alongside Regionals and championships. Sharing more about her experience competing in the series, “I love the friendliness, everyone willing each other on, the big show atmosphere and the ability to give your horse the big show experience but with a bit less pressure than the Regionals.” The Area Festivals provide invaluable experience for the horse and rider.  

Dita, as she is known at home, is an eight-year-old mare, who Sophie has owned from a yearling, backed and produced herself. Sophie commented, “She is the very first homebred from Chadwells Stud and bred by Julia Wilkinson, so this is a huge achievement for her breeder as well.” Sophie describes the 17hh chestnut, “She has been a slow burn, highly intelligent, pretty hot and very reactive to her surroundings! She is either incredible or terrible, but she is slowly starting to settle and soften but she will not do anything she does not want to do. You have to get her onside and work her out, I’m still trying to master that part! She is an incredible mover, and the Area Festivals have been good for her in finding her confidence in bigger atmospheres.”  

With an exciting future ahead for the talented mare, Sophie explained their plans, “For the winter we will try Advanced Medium and Advanced Medium Freestyle at the Regionals and Prix St Georges and Intermediate I for the Area Festivals.”  

Luke Barclay and Romanno Rustic Star 

The Cabin Equestrian  

Luke Barclay and Romanno Rustic Star won the Elementary Silver at The Cabin Equestian’s Petplan Area Festival (15 – 16 August), with a great score of 68.07% and also finished in an impressive fifth place in the Medium Bronze with 64.17%. Luke, reflecting on the feeling of winning, shared, “I was shocked but very happy, I was completely lost for words and it took a while to actually sink in. It showed me that all the time and work I had been putting in, not only with Russ but myself also, was paying off.” 

Some of the highlights of their winning test were, “the centre lines and medium trots. Medium trots are Russ’ favourite and his party trick. His centre lines were bold and give me a good vibe for the rest of the test as well as being a great way to end.” During the qualification period Luke worked to keep Russ’ fitness up and focused on the movements of the test, “I ride six days a week, in the evenings when I finish work, we are extremely lucky to have fantastic hacking so I try to do this at least once a week as well as work in the school, lunging, training and competing.”  

Luke and Russ train at Caskiben Dressage with Claire Moore and Eilidh Grant at least twice a month and Luke has been training with them for over ten years. Luke has also been competing in the Area Festival series for ten years on a number of different ponies, Luke explained. “Starting at Prelim and Novice primarily and it wasn’t until I got Russ in March of 2025 that I decided to move up to Elementary Bronze at the Summer Area Festival. We came second and got to the Championships, because we gained over 68%, we had to move up to Silver.” Following the championships, the duo started to give Medium a go, “I have never ridden a medium test, and Russ had only done one test before. I was unsure if we were ready for it but decided to give it a go.” Moving up a level was a huge step but an exciting journey with plenty of rewards along the way.  

Russ is a 19-year-old Oldenburg gelding, who was bred by the Romanno Stud with his sire being Rubin Star N. Luke shared, “I look over the reins from Paul Mathieson, who bought Russ as a foal and had ridden him up to Elementary level, as well as completing a medium test in 2019. Our journey so far has been one of many highs and the odd lows as well, within a few weeks of bringing Russ back into work we noticed that he was slightly toe dragging. After having him assessed by a lameness specialist vet we had his hock and SI joints injected and since then we haven’t looked back.”  

Luke describes the lovely gelding as having “a huge personality” and is definitely a dressage diva, he explains, “He loves his routine and his field mates, he acts more like a toddler than a veteran horse. We need to make sure there is nothing in his reach in his stable, otherwise he will get hold of it and fight over the wall with his best friend, my sister’s horse Omi. He loves his food and if I am late, he lets me know how unhappy he is. He is such a huge part of my life, and I couldn’t have asked for a better dancing partner. When he is away from home training or competing, he is like a different horse, so chilled and knows his job. I firmly believe he loves to be between the white boards and always puts in his best effort.”  

Russ’ age is always in the back of Luke’s mind, but they have more they can achieve together, “Right now I am just so thrilled to be doing what we are doing and making such fantastic memories. I had always longed for that winning sash and together we did it. We will hopefully be making the long journey to the Summer Championships and we will also try to get our scores for the Winter Area Festivals.” Luke would like to compete at Elementary at the Winter Regionals and Medium at the Area Festivals in 2027, “We are in the process of making our floor plan and music to debut in freestyle. I am super excited to do freestyle. We have also started working on our flying changes with the hope to move up to Advanced Medium, to be able to wear a tailcoat has always been a dream of mine and something to work for in the future.”  

Jennie Wolfe and Waunoris Ice Man © Kevin Sparrow 

Sparsholt College  

At Sparsholt College’s Petplan Area Festival (21 – 23 August) Jennie Wolfe and Waunoris Ice Man, won the Preliminary Bronze with an impressive score of 68.18%, in what is always a very hotly contested class.  

Looking back on an exciting day of competition Jennie reflected, “Honestly, I think I’m still in shock [to have won], I went in so proud to have qualified and hoping for a top ten placing, but all the combinations warming up looked incredible and with Tommy being a heavier horse I do always wonder what the judges will think. I would have been happy whatever our result.”  

Jennie’s favourite moment was reading the judges comments, “It was fab to get their feedback and lovely to see that they all commented on our harmonious partnership.” Being new to competing at British Dressage shows, the Area Festival series felt like a good option for a ‘newbie’ Jennie shared, “It was easy to figure out what was needed to qualify and there were plenty of local competitions in which results were eligible. Saturday [at the Area Festival] was such an amazing day – all the riders were so nice and supportive, and really inclusive.”  

Tommy is an eight-year-old Welsh X, who Jennie bought when he was just one year old off the moors in Devon. Sharing a bit about their journey Jennie explained, “Initially I brought him to be a companion to my other horses, for just £500! He was completely unhandled, vastly underweight and still entire. Within 24 hours of getting him home I started to realise I had something very special.” The duo has had a varied time together so far, “He does anything I’ve ever asked of him, dressage, eventing, show jumping, fun rides, hunting, teaching riders young and old, escorting nervous or young horses. He is the happiest boy and enjoys everything we do together.”  

Away from horses Jennie is getting her PhD in cancer studies, she shared, “I started work in pharmaceutical industry and in what’s left of my free time I enjoy walking my two dogs, who are a Hungarian Vizsla and a tiny Italian Greyhound.” Looking ahead to what's next, Jennie and Tommy are heading to The Sunshine Tour at Hickstead next month, and the Petplan Championships in October.” Aside from that, they plan to spend more time on showjumping and perhaps some hunting, “but making sure we leave enough time to start moving up the levels now too, I’d like to get to Novice level before the end of the year.”