Dressage rider Jade Clark has made a remarkable impression on the international stage, riding her home-bred mare Jemimah HH to multiple top-10 finishes at the International CDI Championship at Hartpury College in Gloucestershire. The 11-year-old mare, hand-bred by Clark, helped the rider achieve ninth, eighth, and sixth place finishes in a field of 27 competitors over three days.
Debut with Great Britain
This was Clark's first time representing Great Britain, and the partnership with Jemimah HH proved to be a winning combination. Clark, from Enville, expressed her joy at fulfilling her dream of competing for her country. "It was always the dream to try and compete for Great Britain and to actually do so was pretty amazing," she said.
Challenges and Triumphs
The event was also Jemimah's first stay away show, which added an extra layer of difficulty. "She'd never actually stabled away from home before so that was just a challenge in itself," Clark explained. Despite initial nerves, the mare settled well and improved each day, a feat Clark described as amazing because "it doesn't always go like that."
Path to International Success
Clark's call-up to represent Britain came after successful results in the British Dressage-led Premier League, where scores in the Prix St Georges (PSG) class can lead to qualification for high-level CDI events. She and Jemimah have previously won titles including the Medium Silver Championship at the National Dressage Championship and the Advanced Medium Silver title at the NAF Five Star Winter Championship. They also won the Intermediate I Bronze Championship with a score of over 70 percent, qualifying them for potential overseas competition.
Future Ambitions
Clark, who runs a dressage coaching business and is a level two coach, has trained under Olympic star Carl Hester. She now aims to compete at another international event at Hartpury in late June or early July and eventually progress to Grand Prix level. "I would like to try to keep pushing on and training towards Grand Prix level," she added.
Clark and Jemimah also achieved a second-placed finish in the PSG freestyle at the NAF Five Star Winter Dressage Championship in Buckinghamshire, further cementing their promising partnership.
