JENNIFER MURRAY MEMORIAL PERPETUAL TROPHY COMPETITION

Profile and photos of the winner, Shuna Mardon from Scotland
Shuna bought her fjord mare Hjemdal Astrid as an un-backed 3 year old, mainly for pleasure and use as a fun hack, but as all Shuna's horses are schooled to keep them supple & obedient, Astrid's initial training included formal schooling. After a couple of years training and pleasure riding, Shuna realised that Astrid had quite good paces, so she started doing a few preliminary tests for fun.' Fun' resulted in the pair regularly winning / being well placed among very good quality horses.
They fairly quickly moved up to Elementary Dressage level and again, success was theirs. Shuna decided to register Hjemdal Astrid with British Dressage and on to affiliated classes.
In 2014, at the North East Dressage Championships, Hjemdal Astrid won the unaffiliated Medium Championship, and came 2nd in the Affiliated Open Elementary Championships out of 30 entries, most of them Warm Bloods. The pair's successes are too many to list and they have even made the Scottish press.

This is a great success story & all credit to Shuna for the work and training she put in to achieve such results against all those mainly warm blooded horses.
As a variety Shuna competes in other disciplines including the "Trec", with in her words ' quite a bit of success' which 'translated' means quite a lot of success. As a means of relaxation, the pair do local hacking and pleasure rides.

Sadly, Astrid has become unsound & may not compete again, but on the bright side, Shuna has two youngsters just starting, the 6 year old, Gaia, and the 5 year old, Halo Desire, who will hopefully follow Astrid's success in a few years. Shuna is a great ambassador for the breed & has shown the UK what a properly trained 'Viking Invader' can do!

Congratulations!!

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