Deben Riding Club
3rd August National Championships Offchurch Bury
From Debbie Mace:-
It was with
trepidation that we traveled up to Offchurch Bury, Near Warwick for the
National Horse Trials Championship. We arrived on Thursday
afternoon and settled Badger in his stable on a super bed of Hemcore,
kindly sponsored for the Championships. We then walked the Cross
Country course and expected the route to have changed due to the floods
the previous week. To our amazement the route was almost exactly
the same as last year although the water was much deeper and the current
running much faster.
Sue Westmore kindly traveled over with us to lend moral support and a
grate deal of advice!
Our times were quite civilised, not competing the dressage until late
morning. The test went well and so we went to look at how the
showjumping was riding. There seemed to be a lot of stops and
quite a few eliminations. After changing tack from the snaffle as
Badger was quite keen at this point, Jess managed a good clear round.
So only the cross country to go.
The first fence of a flowerbed and rail was very near the start so Sue
advised hustling Badger up to get him keen and focused. This
seemed to work well as he set off at quite a keen pace. It seemed
like ages but then they appeared over the horizon over the devils dyke,
the brush, table and home.
As it turned out there were only two people who completed at the optimum
time, so Jess finished on her dressage score and finished in 7th place
out of a class of over 100 competitors.
I know how pleased she was just to have qualified for the championships,
but so chuffed to get placed. Well done to both of you, you both
deserve it.
