West Sussex Riding Club
Kirsty Walker at Offchurch August 2008 |
| Team Results |
Latest results from the teams - for the full write up please see the teams page( under disciplines) OFFCHURCH HORSE TRIAL CHAMPIONSHIPS - August 2008
The first weekend in August saw the 2008 National Horse Trials Championships which were held again at the Off Church Estate near Bury in Gloucestershire. This year we had an Intermediate team, a junior team and a senior novice individual. The teams were as follows… Intermediate: Edna Petter riding Isaac, Michael Smyth riding Dark Pretender (Wilf) and Sophie Ashton-Rickardt riding Symphony. Junior: Jessica Wilkinson riding Dock Leaf’s Lad (Robbo), Hannah Stickley riding Eastwood Help Me Out (Aida), Tom Standing riding Spot On (Alfie) and Amy Sheen riding Nobody’s Fool (Murphy). Kirsty Walker riding Claudia competed in the senior novice section as an individual. All the juniors rode really well and hope they all got a lot out of competing in a national competition over challenging courses. Well done! Unfortunately the team did not get placed, but Michael was placed 9th individually, Sophie was 13th and Edna was 14th. Congratulations! Kirsty and Claudia finished in 5th place which was a huge achievement and they thoroughly deserved it. HICKSTEAD 2008 West Sussex Witches. West Sussex Wallabies. West Sussex Wombats – Finished 8th overall The day was dry but the ground was very soggy. There were hundreds of competitors and the competition was tougher than ever! Everyone had a successful day despite a few poles rolling and a very naughty run out!! Area 13 Show Jumping Team Event 21st June 2008 A miserable morning, in terms of the weather, turned in to a wonderful day, in terms of team and individual rosettes! Again we entered several teams in this event which was run (very well) by Goring and District RC. The senior novice and junior events were run alongside each other, both sections jumping 2’6” in the first round and 2’9” in the second round. The ground was slippery and the course was a challenge with combinations, narrow fences and plenty of brightly coloured fillers However, none of this seemed to phase our horses! In the Senior National novice qualifier there were 6 teams in total and in the London and South East there were 10. All our horses were on top form as you can see from the results and we were the only team to finish with four double clear rounds, winning both events and everyone was placed individually. We will be going to the National Championships at the Lincoln showground in September and the London and South East Championships as well! 1st - West Sussex ‘Witches’ - Team total: 0 faults. The junior event was better attended this year with 5 teams in total (3 were ours!) Again everyone jumped really well and each team was placed. A special well done must go to Anne, Charlie, Chelsea, Tom and Jess for jumping double clear rounds. The ‘Wonder Kids’ were placed 1st and will be joining the senior team at the national championships in Lincoln in September. The ‘Wild Kids’ were placed 3rd and the self named ‘Wombles’ were 4th. Our juniors won all the individual rosettes as you can see! Congratulations to Jess Wilkinson who was the highest placed rider not in the winning team and will be joining the senior team and the Wonder Kids at Lincoln as an individual, which is particularly exciting as she missed out last year due to her horse being lame! 1st - West Sussex ‘Wonderkids’ - Team total: 0 faults. 3rd - West Sussex ‘Wild Kids’ - Team total: 24 faults. 4th - West Sussex ‘Wombles’ - Team total: 24 faults. Style Jumping! Following the show jumping there was a ‘Style’ jumping competition. Again, this is a team of four event with the best three scores counting. WSRC have not entered a senior team before but our juniors won last year so we thought we ought to give it ago this year! Our senior team were the same as the national qualifying team and none of us really knew what to expect! We had to enter the arena and salute to the judge then do a dressage style ‘show’ to include a canter on each rein. Then the judge rang a bell and we had to jump the course of 8 show jumps with as much style as possible (!) which was a challenge as the ground was slippery. After the last jump we had to stay in canter and keep going until the judge rang a second bell, on the bell we had to stop in front of the judge and salute again before leaving the arena. All the movements, including each jump, were marked out of 10 on a dressage style score sheet. We all did our best and our scores were fair, Trisha did particularly well and finished in 1st place individually! At the end of the round we were tied for first place with Horsham (!) and out came the rule book which stated that in the result of a tie the fourth score should be counted which put us in second place by 2 points. I don’t think we mined very much though as Horsham have won the event for the last few years and for a first attempt second place was not bad, we will get in plenty of practice for next year! 2nd - West Sussex ‘Witches’ - Team score: 275 + 4th score. We entered 2 junior teams this year and for Tom, Amy, Anne, Danielle and Charlie it was the first time they had done this sort of competition. It took the same form as the senior competition and both horses and riders rose to the occasion and jumped well gaining some fantastic scores! The WonderKids will be representing the club at the championships in both the style Jumping and the Show Jumping. Amy Sheen will also be competing and the championships as an individual as she was the highest placed rider not in the winning team! Well done everyone. 1st - West Sussex ‘Wonderkids’ - Team score: 292. 2nd - West Sussex ‘Wildkids’ - Team score: 217. Following the novice event was the intermediate show jumping section. We did have a team for this event but for various reasons ended up with only one rider on the day. Michelle McDonald represented the club riding Rohn Polar Princess (Lucy). Lucy had not competed for awhile and jumped really well around the 3’ and 3’3’’ courses just knocking a pole in each round and finishing with 8 faults. It would be great to have more members interested in competing at this level in the future as we really could do well in this section, please let me know if you are interested for the 2009 season! Thank you and well done to everyone who competed, see you at the Championships! Cordelia. Another successful day for our teams! On 25th May we sent several teams to compete in our area horse trials qualifier. The event was run by Horsham and District riding club at Coombelands, near Pulborough. We had teams competing in the Junior, Novice and Intermediate sections for a place at the National Championships at Off Church in August. As well as the national competition there was a London and South East qualifying competition for which we entered senior novice teams, and the South Coast Championship in which our intermediate team competed. We were very lucky with the weather and it didn’t rain, unlike last year when we all got soaked! Everyone enjoyed the day and rode very well. For Tom Standing, Jess Wilkinson, Julie Cockerill, Anne Britton and me, it was our first ODE so we were trying to keep the nerves at bay! The Junior team did a wonderful job scoring well in the dressage, the show jumping and cross country proved to be tricky for some but they all rode like champions and won their event. A special congratulations must go to Tom Standing and Spot On who went clear in both the show jumping and Cross Country phases and won the individual event. The senior competition followed and we all had good dressage scores. The show jumping and cross country were good as well and we had several clear rounds (even though some horses thought it would be a good idea to go round upside down!!) Our Intermediate team had a very good day as well. Sophie scored the highest dressage score she has ever got at a ODE and the others also did well. The show jumping went without a hitch and then we come to the cross country. Michael, Edna and Michelle got round clear but Sophie decided to dismount at the third fence (I don’t think she had a lot of choice in the matter!) but she jumped back on and completed the course without a problem. They finished in 1st place, but not without Horsham putting up a fight, and will join the juniors and Kirsty at Off Church in August. I must say a big thank you to Michelle McDonald who stepped in to fill a space in the L&SE team so had to ride 2 horses on the day! Also to Jenny who provided food and drink for us to refuel afterwards, and all the members who turned up to help on the day, it was much appreciated. Thank you to Stockley Trading who provided us with our very vibrant team colours for the occasion, everyone looked very smart (photos on the website soon). All in all a good day was had by all and we are looking forward to seeing how everyone gets on at Off Church. The teams and placings were as follows; Junior National Team Senior National and London and South East Team London and South East Team Senior National and SouthCoast Championship Team Placed 1st Senior National and SouthCoast Championship Team DRESSAGE QUALIFIER AT KIRDFORD SUNDAY 18 MAY 08
WOW!! - Even Dressage can have a nail biting finish!! Well Done to all Val The NAF Indoor Championships!
The ‘Wonder kids’ qualified for the Championship which was held last weekend (6th April) at Hartpury College in Gloucestershire. Unfortunately Anne Cole was not able to make the championships but Tom Standing stepped in and took her place. As you know the weather was not great and although we did have some sunshine, sleeping in the horsebox in the snow was rather chilly! I must say a huge thank you to Sara Smyth, Jane Stickley and Caroline Allen who drove the teams (and me!) to Hartpury. The first round was supposed to be 2’6’’ but was much nearer the 2’9’’ mark and walking the course in the dark the night before did not help anyone nerves. There were 30 teams competing from riding clubs all over the country! Chelsea and Doc rode first and jumped an effortless clear round. They were followed by Hannah and Aida who unfortunately were eliminated at a particularly spooky fence, Hannah rode very well but Aida was not in the mood! Charlie rode next and Barley was on top form jumping a lovely clear round. Tom was last and rode brilliantly landing a clear round in his first championship competition for the club. They were won of only 5 teams to finish the first round with no faults! The second round, which was supposed to be 2’9’’ was probably more like 3 foot. Chelsea jumped another lovely clear round as did Charlie. Hannah had a bad fall at the second part of a big double and landed rather painfully on the flower pot, she scared us all for a while thinking she had broken a rib but thankfully she was ok and was just badly bruised. Tom was under a lot of pressure to jump clear as there were very few teams finishing with no faults. He jumped really well, but rolled two poles and finished on 8 faults. This meant the team finished both rounds on a very respectable 8 faults and came 7th over all! There was only one team that finished on 0 and three on 4 faults. They all rode like pro’s and I was very proud of all of them. Well done and we hope to see them all again competing for the club later this year. In February we sent 4 teams to Sands Farm Equestrian Centre for the NAF Indoor Novice competition. Our Seniors kicked off the day and the teams were as follows: The West Sussex Witches: Trisha Hoal on Odina, Jackie Oxley on Head Over Heels (Jay!), Michelle McDonald on Dennis and Me on Chester! The West Sussex Wasps: Kirsty Walker on Claudia, Jan Haines on Molly Magic, Michelle McDonald on Hannah and Ali Gooding on Wonderstern (Buddy). Everyone jumped really well, Michelle and I got double clears and a special well done must go to Jan Haines who had not competed on a team before! The ‘Witches’ came 2nd and the ‘Wasps’ came 3rd! The juniors rode next and again we had two teams; The West Sussex Wonder Kids: Chelsea Jelley on Doc II, Charlie Smyth on Barley, Hannah Stickley on Aida and Anne Cole on Abbey Spring Molly. The West Sussex Wild Kids: Amy Sheen on Nobody’s Fool (Murphy), Tom Standing on Alfie, Sophie Langmead on Harry Potter and Jessica Wilkinson on Doc Leaf’s Lad. The juniors all jumped fantastically and the ‘Wonder Kids’ won the class with the Wild Kids coming 3rd. Well done to everyone especially Anne Cole, Sophie Langmead and Tom Standing as this was their first team competition. Well done everyone!
Team members are as follows, well done once again and it is a great start to 2008, may we have many more great days to come with the teams. Senior Teams West Sussex Wasps – Placed 3rd Junior Teams West Sussex Wild Kids
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