Champs

Horse Trials Championships at Off Church Bury 5th-7th August

In the run up to the Championships we ran into even more problems than usual!

I was away on holiday in France, so left Caroline in charge of entries which I knew would arrive while I was away. The lines between our mobile phones became red hot as the first problem arose.

Unfortunately Jane Cragie had suffered a bad fall and had broken her leg, so the first priority was to find a replacement. When one was not forthcoming, Caroline as put forward to make up the numbers, even though her more experienced horse had only just started to compete at Pre-Novice level, but had schooled over bigger jumps. It wasn’t until after the entry had been made that Maria Adlam decided to withdraw, because her horses legs were filling after hard work. Fred Merrett also decided not to compete at the Championships, so we ended up with just three competitors going to the National Championships.

After all the problems getting there, the Championships which were held at Offchurch Bury, near Leamington Spa in Warwickshire were tremendous fun! Julia List and her experienced campaigner Bedingfield Mercury, had a great time, turning in a good dressage, one minor moment on the cross country and a truly lovely clear show jumping round, finishing 8^th in their section.

Caroline with Whitington Renoir (as I said earlier competing at this level for the first time), doing a reasonable dressage, with just one problem at a combination fence early on in the course, then completing the rest of it clear. They found the show jumping more challenging and despite sending some poles flying they still managed a credible 15^th position. Roll on next year!!!

Rob Masterson and Morley Junior thoroughly enjoyed their time! Once they had the dressage out of the way (their first attempt at a test in a long arena!), the jumping was much more to their liking and despite doing a ‘Bettina’ in the show jumping and having a misunderstanding at one fence on the cross country, they finished with big smiles all round.

A big thank you to everyone who came to help, Sarah Masterson, Andy Gledhill, Sue List and Adrian.

Report by Nicky Steward

For full results follow HERE

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