HT07

HUNTER TRIAL

7^th October 2007

Harriet Pirkis, Krystina Fish, Catherine Speakman and Jenny James

Our enthusiastic riders turned out on Sunday to the grassy fields of Beccles to take up our yearly British Riding Club Hunter Trial challenge at Geldeston Hall!

Our competitors were:

Junior Novice Individual

Louise Prowse and Tigani Walk

Senior Novice Individual

Jenny James and William

Senior Novice Team

Jenny James and Lizzie Banks

Harriet Pirkis and Leo

Krystina Fish and Lazulie

(Anne Corke and Chuck withdrawn)

Kindly replaced by Catherine Speakman and Shales Isle

On walking the course we were faced with a completely different route than in past competitions. The second jump was an early eye opener with the landing on a downhill slope and the water complex came quickly in the first third of the course, which did seem to cause a few problems. The course builder was also very keen on narrow fences, which actually left the result board with few clear rounds at all.

Unfortunately Anne was not at all well and sadly could not come along to this event but thankfully Catherine Speakman (nee Monk) who was originally competing as an Novice Senior Individual was very pleased to step in to make the team back up to four riders; and it was a good job she did as both Catherine and Jenny rode fantastic clear and swift rounds putting them in to the ribbons! Krystina had one very frustrating run out but was very pleased with the more testing fences on the course and kept penalty points low finishing very close to the optimum time. Harriet had a few run outs but did extremely well riding Annabel Brown’s ‘Leo’ and gained a great amount of experience ready for future events.

Sophie Prowse rode her Tigwani Walk in the Individual Junior competition. She had a very unfortunate run out but made up great speed as she actually finished spot on the optimum time!

Jenny also rode another of her horses ‘William’ in the Senior Individual competition but unfortunately had a couple of run outs on this tricky course.

The final results were:

Catherine Speakman 1^st Senior Individual Qualifier

Jenny James (Lizzie Banks) 4^th Senior Individual Qualifier

Finn Valley Senior Team Second Overall

Congratulations to you all for completing your rounds, especially Catherine who now has the satisfaction of competing at the British Riding Club Hunter Trial Championships next year!

Thank you very much to each of our riders for doing their best at this competition. It was really good to see new faces. If you would like to be included in our team events please let Barbara or Krystina know, as we would love to have you and always have a great time! We all really enjoyed the event and are very pleased the Catherine finally gained her much sought after first place!!

Reported by Krystina Fish

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