British Riding Clubs ran a most successful Festival of the Hunter Championship on the 4th and 5th June 2016 at Washbrook Farm – our Club was ably represented by Ashley Daniels and Ruby (they both discovered they loved cross country – especially Ruby!!), Lucy Watson and Tyler (who also loved the cross country – my goodness that young horse covers the ground), Sarah Spearing and Timberwolf (behaved beautifully – well ridden Sarah!) and Ruth Watson and Atinkerbell (so accurate and consistent – a pleasure to watch) – they finished 9th overall (3 to count) and 5th overall (all 4 to count) – all came down to the odd show jumping fence (interesting course – jumps 1-5 same for all, then the course split and you could take your own line as long as you jumped fences 6 – 11 in number order – some were duplicated in different parts of the arena) and the optimum time factor in the cross country – there was no window for being too fast – so luck does play a part but there is no other way to separate riders in this kind of competition with no Dressage – so fair enough – and it does make for a fun and thoroughly enjoyable event. Their event was the Senior 90 Challenge we also had a competitor in the Senior Combined Training on the Sunday – very well done and congrats to Rebecca Bush. Most enjoyable day – good fun – splendid team – plenty of character from horses and jockeys and most respectable result!!
