Josh Moore (Loveday L5th) retained his National Intermediate Arena Eventing title at the NSEA National Schools Championships at the start of half
term. With over 40 teams contesting each class at this year’s event (the biggest and most competitive to date), this was a phenomenal achievement. He almost did the double when he took silver medal position in the Open event, being beaten by just 0.5 of a mark! He was also selected to join five other riders from schools around the country to make up the English ‘Nations Cup’ dressage team which they won in convincing style.
As a squad we had lost a large group of U6th formers at the end of last academic year and we certainly missed them (as well as the two ponies that went lame in the week before the Championships which is the nature of the beast sometimes). However, our younger riders stepped up to the mark and did themselves and the School proud, with two top ten positions for the Mini teams in Show
Jumping and Arena Eventing and an 11th (out of 48 teams) for the Novice Arena Eventing team.
It was the Intermediate Arena Eventing team (Josh; Sam Hollidge; Freddy Moore; Poppy Higgins) who finished as our best team with 4th place in a competition that saw the top four teams all finish within two marks of each other! Competition really did come down to a knocked fence or the odd time penalties throughout the course of the weekend. In addition our dressage team (Josh; Amy Scheijde; Lauren Thomas; Lila Millard), who
traditionally have done well at these championships, finished in sixth position in what was also a very tight finish at the end of the day.
Amy Scheijde was on hand on the Saturday to receive the South Central Regional Points cup on behalf of the team who finished in a very strong position at the top of this league at the end of last term.
Chris Allison
Head of Riding
