Last weekend saw our three members competing at the National Horse Trial Championships at Aston Le Walls, Northamptonshire and here is how it went:

Phoebe Towers and Sellie had qualified as an individual for the open championsips  but was then seconded into a team with members from Holme Valley to make up an 'Area 4' team.  Phoebe and Sellie put in an superb performance to lie in 3rd place before the show jumping.  With this running in reverse order, (as it is the full three day event format), and only 3 penalties between the top three it was a real nail biter, but they held their nerve and maintained 3rd place which was a fantastic result.  The team result was also impressive with them finishing in 2nd place, so congratulations go to them all. 

Our two novice competitors, Alex Hetherton riding Bobby Good's Roscars Jasper and Robin Donaldson riding Matilda Cruz had the thrill of competing in a two day event.  Alex reported back that "Jasper was a bit apprehensive at times but I'm delighted to have completed and had a great time".  Robin was looking at a top ten finish right until the penultimate fence of the cross country when he fell victim of the 'Aston curse' and sadly jumped the wrong fence.   Robin isn't the first to suffer this fate, as with the multitude of fences closely sited at this event it can be a challenge, whilst it was a disappointment for his event to end on this note Robin was delighted with Mattie and had loved the opportunity to ride a full speed and endurance phase again.

Here are the final results from the points accumulator show series at Beckwithshaw (Thanks Helen for organising and allowing use to use your fields).

Class 1 Intro Combined Training (70cm)

Class 2 BE90 Combined Training (90cm)

Class 3 BE90 Dressage Only

Class 4 Novelty!

1st  Marion Wilby

2nd Andrew Keane

3rd Trish Heaps

3rd