Talented horse rider Florence Human from near Burnham-On-Sea has won a prestigious dressage competition.
Florence, from the village of Mark, won her class at the NAF 5 Star British Dressage National Winter Championships last week.
She won the Medium Silver Class, which is a notable achievement as she has not long stepped up to this higher level with her horse, Fulgencio, known as Dylan.
Florence, who is now a National Champion, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “I could’ve cried at the end of my test, I was so proud of how Dylan performed and behaved.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so confident riding a test – it felt like a dream! It was just the icing on the cake to win and I’m still so in shock I can’t believe we actually managed to pull it off!”
“He’s such a special horse, he didn’t even notice all of the cameras, speakers, massive flower pots, and various other things that were putting horses off during the day.”
She adds: “Of course we couldn’t have done any of it without the help of our trainer, Sophie Clarke, who is based in Badgworth. She’s managed to keep us focussed and continuing to work towards a goal – even when it looked like all competitions were off for the foreseeable future! We are now setting our sights on the next level up, Advanced Medium.”
Florence and Dylan have previously won a number of national titles and been highly placed since they formed a partnership three years ago. This is by far the most prestigious and most difficult one.
The week ended well when she and her other horse, Briljant (Brian), came 8th in the Petplan U21 Medium Class last Friday.
Florence was a student at Strode but has recently been awarded her A level grades and will be moving on to Bristol University to study BioMeds.
