by Sian Harris, CVRC Teams Captain
What a busy time we've been having this season, with CVRC members taking part in many Riding Club competitions. Here's a description of what's happened so far:
Combined Challenge Championship – Aston Le Walls
Following on from the Arena Eventing Championships CVRC sent another team on the long journey to Aston Le Walls.
The weekend kicked off with Michelle Burgess competing in the Combined Training.
This consists of a dressage test followed by a round of showjumping. Michelle and Bodie had a great start to the weekend and managed a fantastic 9th place. A great birthday treat for Michelle which was followed by a BBQ with the rest of the team.
Then it was time for the Combined Challenge. This is a showjumping course including lots of technical features such as a complex of three planks and a bounce double followed by a shortened cross country course on grass.
Our pathfinders Jess Holman and Millie kicked off the day with a lovely round for just an unfortunate pole down.
Michelle and Bodie were next. An absolutely beautiful showjumping round was followed by two unfortunate stops in the cross country phase. Bodie really took a disliking to some flowers on a jump! He is still very low mileage at this level and will no doubt improve the more he does.
Debbie Bull was next on the very striking Beau. Unfortunately, their round resulted in elimination which was a real shame. We all know what horses can be like but she was part of the winning team who helped us get there in the first place so well done.
Last up was Sian Harris and Quinn who waited all day to compete in probably the hottest part of the day. They had an unfortunate two poles down in the showjumping but stormed around the cross country to finish strongly if a little too fast!!
The team finished 16th overall and we had another fantastic weekend representing CVRC at another championships.
Dressage Qualifiers – St Leonards
We only sent one member to the summer dressage qualifiers as unfortunately it clashed with the Championships and our own camp. But what a member we sent!
Liz Freeman competed in the Prelim 18 as an individual on her horse Redvear Banjo.
She absolutely smashed it with a fantastic score of 70.38% coming 1st and qualifying for the Championships at Lincoln in September. Congratulations Liz!!
Showjumping Qualifiers – Colraine
We had 5 individuals represent CVRC at the summer showjumping qualifiers at Colraine.
This consists of two rounds of showjumping with the second round being against the clock.
First up we had Amy Honeywill on Harry and Helen Lentern on Polgrain Diamond in the 70cm.
Helen is on a very young horse and it was great to see her back out competing for CVRC. She had 8 faults in the first round followed by 4 faults in the second round. A great start for this combination in what was a very busy arena.
Amy and Harry had a great competition going double clear and coming 3rd out of 23 competitors. Fantastic!!
Next up was Sian Harris and Quinn in the 80cm. Their first round was inside and they produced a lovely clear round.
The second round was then outside in the big arena and the jockey decided to be competitive and go a bit too fast!! This resulted in the fastest round of the day but two poles down put them in 15th place overall out 37 competitors.
Jess Holman and Mille competed in the 90cm. They had a lovely first round over a very up to height track. Unfortunately, the then had three down in the next round as Millie got a bit excited!! They finished 13th out of 24 competitors.
Last up was Celena Wolfe on Dude who competed in the 1m class which was huge!! They had 4 faults in the first round and 4 faults on the second round which put them in 4th place out of 5 competitors. Another good day representing CVRC.
Eventing Qualifiers – St Leonards
Unfortunately, due to various horse injuries and poorly humans with Covid the eventing team had to withdraw from the eventing qualifiers.
However, we still sent two volunteers to help for the day. Thank you to Caroline Chenery and Janet Elston for giving up your time despite the team not making it.
