Essex Rider Team Challenge

Sunday 2nd December 2007

Unex Towerlands

For the first time in a while, we sent a team to this event which was on Sunday 2nd December at Unex Towerlands.  The limit on prize money had been raised this year which opened up the competition to a lot more people and there were 19 teams from Riding Clubs and Pony Clubs in the area which took part.  Each team consists of two ponies and two horses, one of each not to exceed £50 and £300 in prize money respectively.  Our team were:

Imogen Bishop on Zonomi

Steven Parker on Moloko

Carly Woodgate on Blakeney Cowboy

Rosie Gunnell on Bertie Bassett

After a warm up class which was optional, every rider had to present themselves to the tack and turnout judge for inspection before they rode their first round and this was being judged as a separate competition.   

The course seemed quite straight forward and inviting but there were a good number of poles coming down and at the end of the two rounds, we had 16 faults on our scorecard, which sadly put us out of the running. Only three teams ended up on a zero score and it was finally won by Havering Pony Club, and two of their team members, Cherie Taylor and Carly Parker are Foresters members so we were very pleased for them!

We were delighted to get a 4th place in the tack and turnout and a special mention by the judge who said we were the highest placed Riding Club by a long way – usually it is the Pony Clubs who win the turnout prizes (that could have something to do with the fact all our team members are Pony Club members anyway!!) 

The competition finished with a grand prize presentation in the main ring at Towerlands which was a great sight to see – with ALL the teams being invited back in mounted to receive their prizes or commemorative rosettes. When we finally left the comfort of the main building, it was dark, cold and blowing a gale in the car park so we were pleased to get the horses away and make our way home but we had a great time and will definitely try to go again next year.  Thank you to everyone who came and rode and supported our team. 

 Riding Clubs Weekend at Towerlands 2007 – Junior Team Manager’s Report

This year, the juniors and seniors were back together again at Towerlands and all the classes were held on the lovely outdoor arena which was just as well considering the deluge of rain we have had recently.  Saturday was the show jumping day for all, including classes for our junior novice and junior open teams.   Ironically, the huge arena was divided into a lovely great big ring for the juniors, a long thin one for the seniors and a diddy little ring for the Style (Equitation) Jumping which didn’t bother us because we didn’t have anyone in the Style class. The warm up was a bit tight though, being shared by all the competitors and it was probably more of an achievement to survive the warm up than to jump the round.  Alison Woodgate assumed the role of Chef d’Equip for the junior novices in the morning and because our team had depleted to 3 for various reasons, we had no drop score and sadly the team were eliminated when Katherine’s pony took a dislike to the course in spite of Katherine’s best efforts! Well done to Bella Bruce though who jumped 3 clear rounds on her lovely coloured pony, Running Rivers and to Carly who rode nicely but had the planks in the second round.    Next up were our Junior Open team and our first round went swimmingly ending with a zero score.  All four of our riders rode well, even if some were a little fast, no names mentioned.   The second round seemed quite big and we weren’t so clever this time, with a scattering of poles leaving us with a score of 36.    We were still 5th so that was better than nothing.  Well done, kids.

Day two dawned way too early and back we went up the M11 again, thank god for the new A120 which reduces the journey considerably.   There were a bevy of Foresters people there as we had to provide FIVE writers for the dressage in the morning and after a flurry of vaccination certificates and declarations sheets, the competition swung into action.  Carly was on first at just gone 9am – she still had her pyjamas on in the warm up – and she and Casper did a lovely test to kick off proceedings and won individual 3rd.  She then went on to take individual 7th in the Riding Test.   Katherine Porter and Isabelle Bruce had a triad each, of dressage, riding test and pairs and in spite of the building tension of all those tests they had to ride, they stayed cheerful and happy all day so that was lovely.  The Sherry family rocked up just after coffee time and Kaile did a nice Riding Test which contributed towards the team 6th place in that class.  Katherine and Bella won the pairs dressage that they had been practicing all week, and our dressage team which was Katherine, Bella, Carly and Natalie, came 3rd!  A very good result so well done.  

Unfortunately, as with all these team events, results, sheets and rosettes were only really available at the end of the day so if you go early, you don’t get to hear how you got on until later.  I think everyone had a good weekend, in spite of the inclement weather, it is quite a marathon doing both days and home life goes on hold until the Monday.  Thanks to everyone who turned out, you all looked great, and especially to the parents and supporters who also give up their time to coach, drive, cater and manage the whole caboodle. 

Alyson Parker

JUNIOR TEAM MANAGER

Riding Clubs Weekend – Foresters Teams – Towerlands 30th June – 1st July 2007

FRC JUNIORS WIN 1ST AND 3RD AT AREA HORSE TRIALS QUALIFIER

At Milton Keynes Eventing Centre on Sunday 10th June 2007

We had two fantastic teams for this event but just beforehand unfortunately Camilla’s pony Rusty went lame and all our reserves (three of them) were unable to stand in so the Seedlings soldiered on with just three riders.  Katherine and Bella went up the night before and stayed over, and the rest of us rocked up early on a grey Sunday morning clutching our passports ready for inspection.  They all passed, thankfully! Milton Keynes is a lovely venue and the ground was fabulous so we enjoyed walking the courses and seeing what we had to do. 

Our first rider, Carly did the most spectacular dressage test of 25 which was the best out of both seniors and juniors the whole day! Bella also did a very good dressage but they are quite a new partnership and time penalties on the XC cost her an individual placing.  Sophie, acting on team orders, went like the wind across country but notched up 16 time penalties for being too fast and Katherine was unlucky when Suzie was distracted in the show jumping but jumped a lovely clear XC. Steven (whose birthday it was) and Dakota jumped double clear with just 0.8 too fast time penalties to get them an individual 4th place.  Georgia’s Benigus had an unlucky pole in the show jumping but they got an individual 5th anyway, and Rosie and Team Gunnell casually pulled in at lunchtime as she was the last team member to ride and did a lovely dressage followed by double clear to give her and Bertie individual 6th place. 

The weather improved significantly and by the time everyone had done their bit, the sun was shining and we were able to relax in front of the scoreboards for the VERY LONG WAIT for the final results.  There were all kinds of disputes which had to be resolved but we were delighted to be placed 1st and 3rd!!!  Then Saffron Walden objected to a score which was upheld and put them in 1st place so that was disappointing because we had already planned our entire trip to the finals at Offchurch, but still we were pleased to be 2nd and 3rd.  We left without rosettes because it was all still going on, and when we got home, and looked at the scores, we calculated that Sophie had been given too many time penalties, so, taking my role as Junior Chef d’Equip very seriously, I appealed to the higher authorities, who did a total recount and the final placings were announced on the Tuesday!!!  Out of 8 teams that started, we had WON and qualified, and our brilliant team of three were 3rd so how good was that?

A HUGE thank you to the people who came along and fence judged:  Jan Taylor, Tori Hyslop and Naz, Kym Ridge in her Subaru, Chris Ball, and Heather & Kaile Sherry.  We couldn’t have competed without you so THANK YOU for giving up your time so generously.    - Alyson Parker, Junior Team Manager

Area 8 Junior Dressage and Show Jumping Qualifiers

Sunday 18th June 2006 -  Writtle College

(also see Photos page)

We sent a record number of junior members to represent the Foresters at Writtle this year in all the junior team events. This was no mean feat as every one of them had to get there (on Father’s Day!) had to practice the numerous tests, and had to have a valid flu vaccination certificate for their pony (not as easy as you might think, believe me!) 

It was also a tricky day because so many of the events clashed and people had no time to get from one class to another.  The Novice show jumping was on the outdoor arena and we had a team of four and a team of three.  There was confusion because the judges inadvertently judged the first round under BSJA rules instead of riding club rules which meant they were eliminating people for two stops when under BRC rules they aren’t eliminated until 3 stops.  This meant two of our riders were called back in to have another go at the fence they stopped at!  Sadly our teams weren’t placed but Camilla Loomes jumped three fabulous clear rounds and WON the individual and qualified for Lincoln! Well done!

We had what were potentially superb dressage teams, but sadly it was not our day and we didn’t qualify despite all our riders scoring over 60%.  The Riding Test was held on a grass arena which was very hard and slippery but all credit to our team because they came 4th and Kelly Clements was 4th individually, so well done to them.  Our Equitation jumping team disbanded before the event as it was on the same hard slippery ground that the riding test had been, and only Steven and Tom braved the conditions, but unfortunately they didn’t get a place.  Steven and Carly were the only pair to perform a Pairs Dressage test but they did a very good job (on the hard, slippery ground) and deserved their qualification. 

The Open show jumpers didn’t get to jump until 4pm, which was a long day for those who were there at the start, and again our teams were depleted somewhat and we only had 3 riders in each team.  Lauren, Kelly and Rosie did brilliantly to finish 3rd and Rosie jumped three clear rounds on the awesome Bertie Bassett to get an individual 3rd place.   Our other team weren’t so lucky but were placed 5th, all the same.

A huge thank you to Alison Woodgate, who seemed to read everyone’s test for them, to Jan Taylor who was sealed into the Vaccination Certificate Checking Office all day, and to all the Mums and Dads who gamely brought along our riders and supported them throughout the day. 

We are hoping that next year, the juniors will amalgamate with the seniors and have their competitions at a venue that can cope with them all on one weekend as we have done in the past.  That way, the dressage and jumping classes will be on separate days which will give our riders time to breathe between the disciplines!  Watch this space.

Best of luck to everyone who will be going to the finals. 

AP.

Poplar Park Area 8 Horse Trials Qualifier 11th June 2006

We were all geared up to send two junior teams to Poplar Park when the usual catalogue of disasters struck during the week before.  We had a vaccination certificate which wasn’t valid, a pony with an infected leg, a child with a painful neck, and a pony whose back was out.  This left us with one complete team and an individual.  These were:

Sunday 11th June was very very hot.  Sophie travelled up the night before with Mum and pony, and Camilla’s pony travelled up with some of our senior team because Camilla and her mum had a family party to go to.  Tom and his Dad arrived at the crack of dawn and we rolled in about the same time as Imogen.  Keen to get a good spot to park, we headed for a vacant space by the front fence with a good view of the XC and SJ and as soon as we parked, we sunk about a foot into the sand!  Thank goodness Christa came with us because she sorted out the dressage tack checks and getting the right juniors into the right arenas while I supervised the tractor pulling the lorry out the sand-dune!  Camilla, Imogen and Sophie did respectable tests whilst Tom’s pony got faster and faster and Steven’s pony thought it was a competition on how high his nose could go. Dressage finished with, off we went to walk the course, together, and we stopped halfway round to say hello to Jan Taylor who was fence judging in her Landrover in the wood, probably the coolest place!  Even the second water jump had dried up!

Next came the show jumping and our riders jumped one after the other.  They jumped beautiful rounds with just one pole down and went to their cross country full of confidence.  These area competitions are always tight for time so they were all briefed to go as quickly as they could safely, and that is exactly what they did.  One by one they set off at a cracking pace and one by one they came back galloping through the finish in fantastic style!  We were so proud of them!  Then we discovered that Tom and Steven had missed out Jan’s fence in the wood and shot straight past and sadly the team were eliminated.  We were so disappointed and both boys were very annoyed with themselves and will probably hate me for writing about it here, but it can happen to anyone and the moral of the story is that if the Chairman is fence judging, pay special attention to her fence!  The team would have been 2nd but anyway, Camilla was 5th and Sophie was 6th individually so well done to them.  It was good to know we were so easily in touch with a placing and could have qualified for Offchurch, so make no mistake,  next year WE’LL BE BACK!!!!!