Millie Boo Smith recently competed in the 2023 RDA National Championships. The event was a huge challenge for Millie as she recently turned 16-years-old, and is now classed as a senior rider and riding against experienced adults, some with their own horses.

Millie doesn’t have her own horse and has to borrow horses; this Millie at a significant disadvantage as she has a very small window to get to know the new horse. In this case she rode a horse called Ocean.

Millie Boo did fantastically well coming in 3rd in her Grade 2 Freestyle to Music, the first time she has competed in this event. Having bilateral hearing loss Millie has to feel the music and she was riding in the huge indoor arena and the class was live steamed on YouTube. Millie also came 4th in her Grade 2 dressage class.

She received her gold medal for winning the Dressage Anywhere online Championships against riders from all over the UK and Hong Kong.

Millie won 1st place and class champion winning a lovely plate for her collage in the Arts and Crafts class for a beautiful piece using horse stamps to design horse heads. She was 5th in photography, too. She also won a rosette for advanced Horse Care and Knowledge and a 3rd place in Best Turned Out.

She was even interviewed by the social media creator Esme Griggs known as This Esme which Millie Boo found fantastic. She was lovely and spent time asking Millie about her riding journey and the challenges she has.

All in all a very successful National Championships which is the biggest RDA competition in the world.

We are so proud of Millie Boo and all the hard work she puts in and her courage and resilience against the senior riders. Our next step on the journey is to find a horse that Millie can compete on to build a relationship and not have to borrow horses. All this on a borrowed horse. Onwards and upwards to the next challenges. 

A huge thank you to Steven, Millie’s dad, for sending us this piece. We wish you all the very best of luck with upcoming competitions.