Finn Valley Riding Club 

National Championships 2017 

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Report by Lucy Stagg

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What a lovely weekend we had at the National Championships this year.  We weren't a large group, unlike Carleton who took up nearly half the lorry park, but we had a really enjoyable time!

 

Shirley Stagg had qualified for the 80cms show jumping and had an unlucky pole down in each round.  She also competed in the Veteran Horse dressage where she and Tia came 11th – she always comes 11th!!

 

Isabella Stagg had qualified along with Sarah Chaplin, Pip Davis and Francesca Aitchison for the 1m team show jumping.  It was extremely foggy first thing on Saturday morning and Pip had a fairly horrible drive up in the morning. The fog was so bad that a judge had to stand at the other side of the ring as some of the jumps could not be seen from the box!! Pip did very well with three clear rounds and finished 3rd overall.  The rest had a few mishaps along the way but the team finished 11th and all did really well as the courses were certainly up to Championship standard.

 

Isabella had also qualified for the Senior Novice 34 dressage and came a creditable 6th.

 

Rosie Stevens had qualified for the 1.10m show jumping and jumped a lovely clear in the second round but unfortunately Alwyn was unsettled by not being able to see in the fog and faulted in the first round.  Rosie was part of the Area 14 team and they came 4th.

 

Shannon Curtis was the only junior who qualified and she did extremely well by finishing 2nd in the Novice 34 dressage.  Another mounted presentation for Shannon – well done!

 

The following day, Shirley, Rosie and Isabella went to Burghley and did the sponsored ride round the Burghley cross country course.  It wasn't the longest ride, but it was wonderful to actually ride round the course and get really close to the jumps – they were huge!!!  Lots of money was raised for World Horse Welfare and other charities. 

 

So, all in all a great weekend and thank you to Finn Valley for all their support.