Cranleigh riders, from both the Prep and Senior School, have had a busy and successful start to this term. The National County Finals on the
first weekend of term saw Cranleigh representing Surrey in the Dressage Championship as well as the Intermediate and Open Show Jumping Championships. Competition was fierce across all disciplines but our Open riders made the final line-up in their two-round show jumping competition, finishing 8th out of 32 teams.
Our Intermediate team had qualified for the Royal Windsor Horse Show and enjoyed an outing to show jump in the Queen’s
back garden! This was always going to be a top quality competition over a testing course and in the end just one fence separated the top 10 teams, with Cranleigh finishing a creditable 8th. On the same day our younger riders made the long trip
to Stonar School in Wiltshire for the Independent Schools One Day Event, with a fantastic 3rd place for Maria Mark (out of 42 riders in her section) and double clears in the show jumping and cross country for both Josh Moore and Issy Hollidge.
A Regional Points League competition at Great Bookham on Sunday saw us maintain our league lead with a second place
in the 75 show jumping (Lauren Thomas; Daisy Roberts; Kristina Vitek; Jessie Schute) and a win in the 80 (Sienna Sartori; Jessie Schute; Kristina Vitek; Daisy Roberts).
Finally the dressage riders made their mark at a regional qualifier for the National Championships in October, sweeping the board in the team competition with gold, silver and bronze medal positions! Charlotte Livingstone also qualified individually in the Prelim test, taking first place in a competition where Cranleigh riders filled the top four spots (Amy Scheijde 2nd; Felicity Bull 3rd; Lauren Thomas 4th). Chantelle Phillips took an individual 2nd in the Novice (Charlotte 5th) as well as 3rd in the Elementary test. Annie Vitek was placed 6th in the Introductory test.
The first weekend of half term will be a busy one for the riders as they contest regional qualifiers in both Arena Eventing and Show Jumping, followed by the NSEA Eventers Challenge Final at Hickstead.
Chris Allison
Head of Riding
