NATIONAL COUNTY SHOW JUMPING CHAMPIONSHIPS, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

National County Show Jumping Championships, Buckinghamshire.

Grace Gale and Scarlett Holden, along with Laura Holley, Jack Rigal and Elizabeth Gale travelled five hours to Buckinghamshire to represent Cumbria against the best schools from all the other counties in the UK.  

Sedbergh was represented at every height; 70cm, 80cm, 90cm, 1m and 1m 10 after qualifications in January in the North East.  Each class had teams of 4 with approximately 200 competitors per class and over 1193 rounds of jumping over the two days. Each height included two rounds of show jumping in the outdoor and indoor international arena with plenty of things for the horses to look at. 

Laura Holley got the weekend off to a flying start, coming 5th out of approx 60 riders in the 70 cm warm up class the night before the big event.  The 70cm Team included Laura, Grace and Scarlett.  The team were determined and rode well but it did not quite go to plan. Laura did exceptionally well getting the 2nd fastest time out of a huge number of competitors but sadly did not finish on a clear. 

For the 80cm class, the team now included Elizabeth and they picked themselves up and went in with a positive mindset.  They finished the first round on a Team Clear which was great. Unfortunately, they did not finish the second round with the same, but the team still managed a credible 16th place. The highlight was watching Grace ride two incredible rounds to take home 6th place out of a huge field. 

After a long day of  competing on the Saturday, Elizabeth brought out her bigger grey for the 90cm warm up in the evening and finished 4th. The next day, Jack, Grace and Elizabeth performed well in the 90cm teams but sadly it was not to be their day with a few poles down.  Jack did two wonderful rounds, Elizabeth finished 14th individually.

Elizabeth, a true Sedberghian continued on with the 1m and 1m 10 classes.  She got the fastest time in the 1m class against many GB riders and would have finished 1st but had an unfortunate pole, to drop her to 5th which was still an incredible achievement. 

Thank you to all our fantastic parents and riders for representing Sedbergh this weekend and especially to the Gale family who pulled out all the stops to help teams out with taking four horses down.  This involves an incredible amount of work and effort and we are very thankful. Overall, a successful weekend for Sedbergh and what a fabulous experience to compete against schools from all over the UK. 

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