The Arena Eventing Championship was a real roller coaster for Horsham RC this year!
The first class was meant to be the Senior 80cm but the weather had other ideas and it started snowing. Caroline Exley was the only member in this class and wasn't due to jump till midday. She set off but the snow starting getting heavier so pulled into Chobham services on the M25 to phone a friend who she knew was up there. They told her that it was snowing heavily at Aston-le-Walls too, the arena was covered in snow and BRC were going to make a decision at 12 if the competition would go ahead. Caroline decided not to risk going any further and headed home.
The snow stopped mid morning and the team at Aston-le-Walls did a great job of harrowing the arena so BRC decided to cancel the 90cm class which was meant to take place in the afternoon and run the 80cm class instead as there were many riders there that had stabled nearby. Unfortunately this meant that Alison Glover who had qualified as an individual for the 90cm senior class never went either
.
On Sunday there was no sign of the snow and the classes went ahead as planned. In the 100cm mixed class we had a team of 3, Liv Nolan, Olivia O'Reilly and Laura Durkan who all rode brilliantly to WIN in a big class of 62 starters! Well done ladies.
Liv Nolan riding Cecelia Woudina - ind 3rd
Olivia O'Reilly riding Kiltons's Love Story Romeo - ind 12th
Laura Durkan riding Freddie Fly - ind 22nd
The only other Horsham member to attend was Imogen Nolan riding Cool As A Breeze at their first championship for the club in the 90cm junior class. Imogen flew round but unfortunately jumped one of the 100 fences so were give a technical elimination.