Winner winner chicken dinner! A plucky team and individuals from Camel Valley headed to Colraine on February 26 for the Combined Challenge, which used to be called the Festival of the Horse: it's a showjumping round followed by a a cross country round, measured against an optimum time. 

Entering as individuals in the 70cm were Heidi Robinson on Lily and Amy Honeywill on Harry; Celena Wolfe entered as an individual in the 90. The CVRC team entered the 80cm, and it comprised Teams Captain Sian Harris on Quinn, Jess Holman on Millie, Debbie Bull on Beau, and Michelle Burgess on Bodie. 

Sian reports: "I'm very pleased to report the Camel Valley Riding Club had a great day at the Combined Challenge Area Qualifier at Colraine. It was a challenging, twisty course which was up to height.

"We kicked off with the 70cm where Amy and Harry had 9th and Heidi and Lily came 20th.

"We are proud to report that the 80cm team came first out of eight teams. We will be off to the champs at Aston Le Walls in May!"

Within the team was a range of performances. Sian and Quinn topped the charts with an individual 1st, well done to them! Jess and Millie were individual 8th, and Debbie and Beau were individual 16th.

Michelle and Bodie looked very smart but had an unfortunate "whoopsie". Michelle clung on valiantly after being unseated at a brush fence, and very nearly made it back into the saddle.... until Bodie decided he had waited long enough and finished the job! It was a good effort though. 

Celena and Dude rounded off the day with 6th in the 90cm.

Says Sian: "It was a great day all round and we all looked very smart in our new Camel Valley kit: we had new team matching shirts, hat silks and saddle pads all sourced by Roz Mather. They were black with yellow writing and stars, and made us look very professional."

Big well done to the team: now a quick 6 hour drive in Aston Le Walls for the finals!