Hickstead NSEA Eventers Challenge Championships
The riding teams left Sandroyd on the Friday of half term for the drive to Hickstead. We had a group of 7 riders having lost Rosie with her broken arm the week before. On arrival we found the stables and had to get changed quickly for the first warm up class. The warm up class went well with clear rounds for all. Back to the stables to put ponies away and then we had to walk the Eventers challenge course ready for the next morning.
A very early start on Saturday as the class started at 7.30 am and ran till 3pm. With 37 teams and 182 riders it was a very big class. The white team of Bo, Georgia, Gigi and Cecil rode well with 3 riders completing the course. Herbie decided to have a good look at the water but with perseverance from Gigi managed to get his feet wet and continued on the course. They finished 19th as a team. The purple team only had 3 riders, Lily, Willow and Rose, so all had to complete which they did and with strong rounds from all 3 put them in 11th place.
The dressage team of Lily, Willow, Bo and Rose also had the County Dressage finals to do on the Saturday morning before their Eventers Challenge round. Some very good tests put them in 4th overall which is the highest dressage place ever by a Sandroyd team. Bo had also qualified for the individual finals and rode a good test pacing 11th.
Sunday was another busy day with 4 more classes to do. The first was the County Show Jumping finals for Lily, Willow, Bo and Cecil. There were 19 teams in the class. A couple of poles down which left them with a team score of 4, and finishing in 10th place.
Next it was the qualifiers for the nationals at Addington in October. We had both teams in the 70/75 qualifier. The purple team of Bo, Cecil, Lily and Willow were 2nd with Lily individually 6th. The white team of Georgia, Gigi and Lily were 3rd.
In the 80/85 qualifier, the tam of Lily, Willow, Bo and Georgia won the class with Willow individually 3rd.
In the 1m qualifier James rode as an individual and was 3rd which qualifies him for the championships in October too.
The last class on Sunday for the teams was the JWS qualifier which Cecil, Gigi and Lily on Scooby won with Lily winning individually too.
James had the 80/85 Eventers Challenge later in the day and rode a confident round in a huge class of 233 riders and finished in the top 100.
Well done to all of our riders, a busy but successful weekend!
