Congratulations to Team Rosanna Carriage Driving on a spectacular finish to the 2016 season. Here’s an update and recap from Rosanna.
Rosanna finished the 2016 season on a high by winning the British Carriage driving National Championships with new pony Petit Hurricain, triumphing in all three phases of the competition on her way to victory.
After winning the dressage with Hurricain’s best score of the season, Rosanna went on to put down the fastest marathon time of the championships, including the fastest time in each of the eight obstacles. The pair then topped off a commanding win with the fastest double clear of the day in the cones phase.
To acknowledge her dominating performance, Rosanna was presented with a special trophy for the lowest overall score of the championships. This is the second time that Rosanna has been crowned National Champion after previously winning in 2012 with Dabernon Tiger Woods.
The National Championships was also the first Team GBR selection event for the 2017 World Pony Driving Championships to be held in Minden, Germany. Rosanna’s victory puts her top of the selection rankings with three more events to come next year before the World Championships in August. Rosanna will be hoping for a place on the British team to improve on her 4th and 2nd place finishes at the last two World Championship events.
2016 has been a comparatively quiet year, competition wise, whilst Rosanna is completing her PhD in Sports Psychology. Nonetheless, plenty of hard work and training has still been going on with Hurricain at home. Working on his schooling has been the main focus and, on that front, the addition of ridden dressage trainer Marc Leon to the team has been fantastic. Hurricain’s progress over the last 12 months is untold.
Next year will be a busy one, with Team GBR training commencing in February and then the first selection event of the year at the beginning of May. Our training and development plan with Hurricain will continue throughout the Devon winter to hopefully put us in the best position to go for gold in Germany next August.
We would like to thank you for your continued support and the contribution that you have made to Hurriain’s improvement this year. We’re very excited about the next 12 months encompassing the World Championships and we look forward to sharing each moment with you.