Saturday saw the first South East league event of the new year for the riders when they travelled to Felbridge for an Eventer’s Challenge. Despite some very strong winds playing havoc with the jumps at times, which meant that riders had to be held on the cross country section on several occasions, we had some excellent results and are currently in second spot in the league.
It was our team of Prep School riders (Issy Hollidge, Jessie Schute, Jess Edwards and Freddy Moore) who led the way in the 80cm class, 
injecting a touch of competitiveness into their rounds that was perhaps lacking from some of their older team members. In a very strong field of 13 teams they posted a third place, finishing on the same score as the runners-up, but not quite being close enough to the optimum time.
In the 90cm class there was an excellent performance by Captain of Riding, Charlotte Livingstone, who not only led her team to third place in a very tight competition, but finished second individually in a field of 57 riders. She was well supported in the team by Sophie Miller, Sam Hollidge and Josh Moore but mention should also go to Poppy Watkinson who finished 11th individually in this big class.
Charlotte led the way in the final class of the day too, taking another second place in the open class. With good performances from Lucy Collecott (7th), Sophie Miller (12th) and Felicity Bull they also clinched another team third.
Next Saturday sees the riders tackle the first National Qualifier of the year at Bury Farm.
Chris Allison
Head of Riding
