Riding Club Area Hunter Trial at Geldeston Hall on the 8th October 2006

Finn Valley entered the Area Hunter Trial 2006 with an Individual Junior (qualifier) competitor and two Senior (qualifier) Teams, aiming to qualifying for the Festival of the Hunter Cross Country Championships, which is held in 2007.

Our Individual Junior (qualifier) competitor was Louise Prowse

Our Senior Novice (qualifier) Team consisted of SarahAnn Gun, Anna Mason, Jane Cragie and myself; Krystina Fish

Our Senior Open (qualifier) Team consisted of Julia List, Caroline Steward and Anna Hayley

And, Lynne Barrett, Catherine Monk, Emma Wales and Rachel Hadingham, made a Senior Novice (Non qualifier) Team who were able to gain valuable experience at a Riding Club event.

Our riders gathered at Geldeston Hall in good spirits and ready for the cross-country course set before us. Geldeston Hall is quite a tricky course with a lot of deceptive fences, and it was again for the Riding Club Hunter Trial 2006!  The weather was lovely; dry and bright, but this did create some ‘interesting moments’ with a few landings into darkness when entering the woodland areas of the course!

Each of our riders rode very well and tried their best but unfortunately our potential qualifier competitors had mixed fortunes and therefore sadly did not come home with enough clear rounds to get through to the Championships. However the course appeared to prove difficult for many of the teams as despite only one clear round in our Senior Novice (qualifier) Team we were very pleased still being placed second!

Our Senior Novice (non qualifier) Team, made a very challenging effort overall and were very pleased to come home with three clear rounds out of four. Unluckily this team were not quite fast enough to win their class but came a well deserved third and offer some great horses and riders for next year.

I was personally pleased with all of our Riding Club Members at this event; I felt that each of our horses and riders made an honest attempt at cracking the twists of Geldeston’s course!

Thank you to everyone who came to help and support us!

Anyone interested in joining in with a team event please just let us know. It’s a great way to find out what happens at a show with other riders to help and support you before you head out to a competition on your own.

Report Krystina Fish