EQUESTRIAN SUCCESS

The Prep School Equestrian Team competed at South View Equestrian Centre in Cheshire last weekend.  This was an Inter Schools Event with many schools travelling a long distance to compete.  The competition was high and classes were large with riders who gained 1st or 2nd place qualifying for the Nationals. It was a successful weekend considering it was many of our riders first time representing the school and also many were on new horses. 

Alicia Newing started off the weekend nicely with the Prelim 14 Dressage Test where she came 9th out of 40 riders, with ages ranging up to 18 years old.  This is a fabulous achievement for her first outing.  Alicia went on to compete in the 70 cm Jumping with Style where she had to jump half a round of show jumps followed by cross country fences in an arena.  This was a new experience for Alicia and Sugar and they performed very well.

On the Sunday, Laura Holley rode her smart new piebald Mr Twist and did a lovely clear in the 70 cm show jumping.  Scarlett Holden rode her new lovely grey called Princess and they did two super clears in the 70cm and 80cm.  Sadly Laura and Scarlett were not fast enough on the timed section for rosettes however going safely and clear were the aims for the day to build confidence.

Grace Gale was aiming to qualify for Nationals but sadly missed out on PJ with a few poles down but rode positively in the 80cm and 90cm show jumping. 

Elizabeth Gale who was at our Prep School last year and is now at our Senior School came 4th on Charlie in the 1m 15.  She was against a strong field including Great British riders so did exceptionally well.  This was a big track and the highest she has jumped on Charlie. Elizabeth will be going down to Nationals in October with our strong Senior School Squad including Storm Straker, Darcy Wilkinson, George Rigal, Phoebe Thorpe and Jack Rigal. Our Prep School Riders have some great role models to watch and learn from.  We are taking 8 horses down to Buckinghamshire for 4 days so will be incredibly busy.

It is an exciting time for our Sedbergh Equestrian Team which is growing and developing.   We are looking forward to some team training throughout the winter months. If anyone is interested in training and / or competing for the school in Dressage, Show jumping or Eventing please contact Mrs Barker (feb@sedberghprep.org).