AT the Cabin in Aberdeenshire, Pearl Peterkin continued her recent run of novice dressage form with her home-bred Bogton Juniper.

Pearl and the TB x Clydesdale won the restricted novice.

Pearl said: "She is eight years old and was bred at home by my husband. She is kind and willing and I have been working with my trainer Jane Rutherford to improve her medium trot."

Jennifer Johnston and her beautiful MFS Caliana won the open novice section. The attractive five-year-old chestnut mare was bred by the Moray Firth Stud and is by MFS Vision out of a Jurius mare. Emma Murray was second on her at the summer championships at prelim level earlier this year.

Jennifer commented: "Caliana just needed five more points to finish her winter regional qualification, so her 73%+ mark more than covered it! She went really nicely and is feeling more confident in the arena."

Inchoonans, near Errol, held its first affiliated competition and was praised by all as a much needed venue in the area. Mother and daughter combination Rebecca Chalmers and Georgina Chalmers Grey dominated the novice classes.

Rebecca won both the open sections with her home-bred Millhorn Ellie, while Georgina won both the restricted sections with the seven-year-old Highland pony Prince Lochnagar of Moulzie. Rebecca reflected: "Georgina and I have never competed against each other, although with being in different sections it wasn't too cut throat! I was terribly proud of Georgina as her pony required a fair bit of riding, but can do a great test when he is ridden well."

Georgina and 'Harry' are part of the BYRDS scheme and do a little bit of everything together. In 2011 they were awarded the trophy for the highest versatility points for a Highland and junior rider.

Rebecca's horse Millhorn Ellie is a home-bred four-year-old by Dauntless Prince out of a show cob that Rebecca used to compete. Rebecca explained: "Georgina helped me back her last year. It means a lot to me to be out competing with Ellie, as I lost my other home-bred mare Permanent Wave a few weeks ago. Ellie was relaxed and happy although a little green at times. It was only her third ridden outing so I am over the moon with her. In her second test, she was looking at the other horses as she was last to go and she got a bit lonely on her own which made us very late to canter, but other than that she was fabulous."

Helen Bowman and her Silvio II-sired Rainbow DML won the elementary restricted class with 71%. Helen took over the ride on the 14-year-old a few years ago. Helen explained: "He was originally a show jumper and did his first dressage test with my sister Fiona. I took over the ride a few years ago and after doing a bit of everything, we started to focus on dressage this year. With help from my trainer Linda Lucey, we have been working on establishing our work at elementary with a view to moving to medium in the future. We have recently been focusing on making his trot more expressive and it seems to have come together today. I am delighted with him!"

At Gordon Dressage Group, Eilidh Grant and her young rider team horse Comanche Crumble won the pick your own test where they scored 68% in the PSG test. Eilidh and the 16-year-old mare were best of the Brits at the Young Rider European Championships in Switzerland earlier this year.

Eilidh commented: "I took Crumble out as she hadn't competed for a while and I thought it would help keep us on the right tracks! She lost a bit of energy in the test, but overall it felt lovely. In the past her shoulder-in has not been supple enough and her tempi changes can be downhill, so I was delighted to get 8's for those movements.

"It was great to get to talk to judge Paul Hayler afterwards as he told me about the main bits in the test that I need to be careful with, such as my canter half-pass which he said was good, but too steep for PSG. I have been practising the grand prix movements and forgot to stretch them out a bit in the PSG! It is a great experience to compete Crumble as she is a star and such a hard worker. She always gives it her best," added Eilidh.

Not to be outdone, Eilidh's sister Claire Moore won both of the restricted advanced medium tests with her own Rendezvous and a double unaffiliated prelim win with Master Oscar.

Tricia Hynd has been deputising for her sister Kirsty Geddes while Kirsty is having a family on the Tornado-sired Temptation Z. Tricia won both the open novice classes with the 10-year-old who was bought from Jack McGeogh five years ago.