By: Hannah Alexander
It is my first year as a member of
Aspley Guise Riding Club and I was lucky enough to be
entered into the Junior Team Indoor Winter Show Jumping
Competition. The cream team members were Eleanor Cloake,
Sam Garner, Tia Cowie and me. The first round was at
Keysoe , and I was the first one to jump in my team.
After that it was all good news for the cream team, we
all had clears which ended us on 0! The second round
soon came along and the team ended on 0 again! All this
good news meant that we had to do a jump off. We all
went round at high speeds clearing all the jumps which
put us into 1st! We couldn’t believe that
we had qualified for the championships.
Before I knew it, I was up at 4.30am
on Sunday, to go to Hartpury. At that point it was not
snowing, but by 5.30am there was a thick covering of
snow, and it was snowing hard!! Fortunately my Dad, who
likes a challenge, was driving, and tried to reassure me
that there was nothing to worry about as the ABS on the
car kept cutting in!! By the time we reached Oxford we
had averaged 30mph, and had had to stop a couple of
times to clear the lights of snow. My Mum called Sam’s
Mum at 7.00am, because they had spent the night at
Hartpury – I think they were awake! – to warn them that
we might be late – they did not realise it had snowed!!
We finally arrived at 7.50am, just in time to walk the
course at 8.00am.
Again I was the first to jump, and I
was pleased to go clear as I was the path finder. After
the first round, our team carried forward a score of 4
faults. Then after about 4 hours it was my turn to jump
again, the second round was much quicker than the first
round as some teams had been eliminated. After the
second round we ended on 12 faults, which put us in the
final results in 11th, just out of the
rosettes. But we were pleased with that. We were told
that team that were not placed could go to the sectaries
and collect a rosette just to say we had been there, so
at least we didn’t go home empty handed.
For these two fun outings I would
like to thank Rachael Mackie and Mary Cloake for all
their support. And juniors, do enter the summer teams
for dressage, show jumping and horse trials!!
By Hannah Alexander
