This year we had a team in the 70cm and Hannah Stickley as an individual in the 80cm.
Owing to the really dry weather we've had this year there was a lot of concern about how good the going would be but the grounds team at Swalcliffe did an amazing job of aerating and watering the ground. All the classes are now spread over 2 days with the dressage and show jumping on Saturday and cross country on the Sunday.
70cm team
Teresa Lavender riding Jamie's Pride
David Ware riding Flimsy
Janet Colenutt riding Storm Force
Teresa, Mark(husband) and Lola(dog) travelled to Swalcliffe for their weekend. Teresa and Alfie had a good dressage test of 34.8 and went clear show jumping which put them in 5th place overnight. Unfortunately Alfie did not like the tannoy ahead of the first cross country fence and refused to leave the start box. They then picked up 20 penalties at the first fence and some time penalties. However they made a good recovery and flew round the rest of the course proving that hills aren't a problem for Alfie. This was only their second horse trials and they look forward to many more.
David and Stanley hadn't been able to make the qualifier but as they've been out doing other events were ready to go to the Championships. They did a fairly good dressage test of 36.3. Stanley took a dislike to one of the show jumping fences but went over the second time of presenting. They also had a couple of stops on the cross country course but David was still really happy with how Stanley had done and coped with the hills
Janet and Nobby only knew they were going to the Championships a couple of days before due to 2 members having to pull out of the team. They really rose to the occasion pulling out a good dressage teat of 32.5 then clear show jumping which put them in a good place Saturday evening. They then proceeded to go clear round the cross country course but unfortunately picked up some time penalties which moved them down a few places but still ended up in 9th position.
Hannah Stickley was riding her super mare Poppy as an individual in the 80cm section. Poppy as usual pulled out a lovely dressage test with a score of 28 then went onto do a clear round leaving them in 2nd place overnight. They then had a great clear round on the cross country just picking up a few time penalties due to the heat and the relentless hills which meant they ended up in 9th place for their section.
All had a wonderful time and enjoyed social evenings camping and cheering each other on. Well done!