South East Jumping with Style Regional Qualifier

Cranleigh Riders quite literally picked up the reins where they left them last term when they travelled to St Leonards Mayfield School, East Sussex on Saturday 19th September for the penultimate South Regional Qualifier for the National Schools’ Championships in November.

The Prep School mini team of Ailsa Wates, Chantelle Phillips, Amelia Adorian and Holly Partridge started the day with four  clear jumping rounds that gained excellent style marks and good times through the cross country phase to put them in first spot in what was probably the most competitive competition of the day.  Along with the team qualification for the championships, Holly Partridge gained an individual qualification by finishing 3rd and there was also an excellent 5th place for Amelia Adorian riding in her first competition for the school: with over 45 riders in the class these were really encouraging results.

We had a second mini team of Briony Pearson, Harry Wates and Archie Graham-Watson (great to see the boys out competing) who finished in 7th place, which was highly commendable given that they only had three in their team.  They were commended by the judges as the ‘best turned out’ team in the competition, as aspect of these competitions which is very important.

Ailsa then joined three senior school riders, Indi Thompson, Briony Pearson and Imogen Thomas in the Novice competition where both she and Indi produced stylish clear rounds but incurred a few time penalties in the cross country phase.  Imogen rode extremely well despite feeling awful and although Briony’s round came to an abrupt end when her saddle parted company from her pony’s back, the team had done enough between them to finish in 3rd place and secure another qualification for the Nationals.

In a very close Intermediate competition our riders had mixed fortunes but again they did enough to secure 4th place and be handed down a qualification as the team in 3rd were unable to take theirs!  Imogen Way produced an outstanding round to win the individual competition and she was ably supported by Tom Lane, Imogen Thomas, who improved still further on her novice round, and Indi Thompson, who would undoubtedly have scored very highly had she not lost her way in the cross country phase!

An excellent day all-round and we are looking forward to the final Southern Regional Qualifier in half term as well as the Intermediate British Schools’ Eventing Championships at the lovely setting of Stonar next weekend.

MCA