Team competitions 2009

National Championships - Lincoln

What a fabulous weekend at the National Championships in Lincoln. Our Senior Open dressage team came home with a 3rd placing - the highest the club has ever achieved at the Championships - and to round it off the team was also placed 3rd in the Team of 4 dressage too!

There were individual placings for everyone too!

Jane Jeffries	N25 - 66.8% - 5th	N27 - 69.29% - 4th
Victoria Parry	N27 - 68.93% - 4th
Jennifer Burnett	N30 - 62.31% - 7th	E48 - 66.21% - 5th
Claire Newlands	E48 - 64.1% - 11th	N30 - 67.31% - 4th

Kelly McKay, Emma Grant and Moyra Cassie made up the Novice dressage team and Emma was placed 6th and Kelly, Emma, Lauren Cowie and Victoria were the riding test team and Lauren was placed 7th individually. The pairs of Lauren and Jane were 13th.

Horse Trials National Championships - Aston Le Walls

Report from Freya Petrie and Redsky Rebel

It was a beautiful sunny day when Mum, Rebel and I set off for the championships which were being held this year at Aston le Walls, Northamptonshire due to a last minute change of venue. The weather remained warm and sunny as we arrived at Carlisle to let Rebel have a break from the travelling. After a small amount of convincing we managed to get Rebel back into the trailer and set off on the remainder of the journey. When we were about half an hour away from Aston le Walls the weather suddenly turned on us, changing from gorgeous sunshine to heavy rain. By the time we were pulling up into the lorry park there was a substantial amount of rain lying on the ground and several of the stables had already flooded. Luckily the stable we had been allocated was dry, if not a little bit small for a 17hh horse but once we had coaxed Rebel into it he was happy enough!

The next mission was putting up our tent. We had originally been told by the British Riding Club officials on site that we were not permitted to put up our tents, which didn’t go down too well with any of the competitors, so we all just proceeded to put them up anyway as we didn’t have anywhere else to stay! It was still pouring with rain and the officials initially decided to cancel all of the junior competition, but later decided to run a combined training competition for them. So with the rest of the competitors unsure as to whether or not their competition was even going ahead we retired to our tent.....and it was still raining....things at this point were not looking too hopeful!

However on the Friday morning we awoke to glorious sunshine, and were told by the officials that they would be assessing the cross country course with the view to running a shortened format of a 3- day event. So we proceeded to get ready for the dressage and managed to get through the test with only a few minor hiccups. Rebel was as high as a kite as he had not been ridden the week prior to the championships after contracting an abscess in one of his hind feet, and we were unable to ride the horses anywhere due to ground conditions unless we were actually warming up for our dressage test. We ended up with a 37.1 dressage which I was fairly pleased with considering the circumstances.

By this point the officials had taken the decision to run Phase A and Phase D of the cross – country, so on Saturday afternoon we set off at a beautiful extended trot round Phase A, and came in over the finish line with a massive gaggle of ducks (I’m not sure quite what Rebel made of them). The vet declared us fit to go around the cross-country so after 5 minutes of waiting we were off. Unfortunately I got a little bit lost on the course and ended up picking up 20 penalties due to rider error but Rebel was fantastic, jumping some far more technical fences than he has previously been over.

The next day the sun was still shining as we show- jumped in reverse order during the hottest part of the day. We had two fences down which by Rebels’ standards were not too bad. All in all it was a fantastic experience for both of us, as I had never taken Rebel so far away from home and we were unsure as to how he would behave. Luckily he took it all in his stride and so hopefully we will get the opportunity to go down again next year!!!

Area 22 - Brechin

What a successful weekend that NERC's teams had at the Area 22 qualifiers this weekend!

Our Senior Open dressage teams were 1st and 2nd, the novice dressage A team was 2nd and the senior riding test teams were 2nd and 3rd. The junior team was 2nd in the dressage and riding test. There was an abundance of individual wins too with Jane Jeffries winning both N25 and N27 with over 72% in both tests, Claire Newlands won N30, Lea Gray won both E48 and M64 and Lauren Cowie won RT8. Claire Grant won the novice DTM, Jane Jeffries and Lauren Cowie won the Senior pairs and Polly and Alice Prior won the junior pairs.

In the showjumping arena Polly Prior won the Junior Open and Gemma Taylor was 2nd in the junior novice SJ. Sophie Bultitude won both the non-qualifying junior novice SJ and style jumping and the Senior novice SJ team won! Well done everyone - watch out Lincoln here we come!

Full NERC results from Area 22.

Team competitions 2008

Horse trials

Read Sally's report on the Horse Trials Championships at Offchurch.

Congratulations to Jill Angus (Katouche Bay), Alice Ratcliffe (Wilson), Sally McCarthy (Miros Arc) and Karen Wilson (Fussy O'Neil) who won the novice horse trials qualifier at Auchlishie, Kirriemuir on July 5. They will now make the long journey to the Championships in Warwickshire at the beginning of August. The other novice team wasn't as lucky. Lesley Shepherd and Berryley Tequila Hotshot pulled up on the XC and Toni Shepherd had an unscheduled dismount at the ditch. Both Jennifer Burnett (Balhagarty Harvest Gold) and Lea Gray (Tiger Feet II) had terrific dressage scores to place them 1st and 3rd after the dressage but both had a stop on the XC. In the Open section Jennifer Burnett (Craigmanice Altotude) came 2nd and the although Debs Atkinson (Ladykiller) and Freya Petrie (Rebel V) weren't placed in the Intermediate section they came a creditable 10th and 7th individually.

Dressage and showjumping - Fife

Congratulations to everyone who represented NERC at the Area 22 qualifiers in Fife on May 31 and June 1. The Open dressage team and the novice show jumping teams won and the Juniors won the dressage, riding test and pairs as well as the Open Individual SJ - so we'll be heading to the National Championships in September! There were various individual placings in all events.