Ireland’s Austin O’Connor came back from Rolex Kentucky, where he had a good event finishing 16th on Balham Houdini, and got straight back into the saddle for a win at the brand new event, Whitfield Horse Trials.
Held on 28th and 29th April in Northamptonshire, Whitfield is a new addition to the British Eventing calendar and another event run by the highly successful company Musketeer Event Management. As they say, if you want to get a job done, ask a busy person and Alec Lochore who heads up Musketeer is certainly busy this year. Director of the Blair Castle International Horse Trials which will host the FEI European Eventing Championships Alec also runs several events throughout the year including Burnham Market International, Houghton International and Cholmondeley Castle Horse Trials and has now added the new venue at Whitfield to the list.
Held at the Whitfield Racecourse, between Silverstone and Brackley near Northampton, the inaugural Horsezone.co.uk Whitfield Horse Trials ran three BE90, two BE100 and two Novice classes on Tuesday in lovely sunny weather. On Wednesday the rain played its part in the morning during the dressage and show jumping phases but by the time the cross country was underway, the rain had eased and stopped for the best part of the day then returned in time for the packing up process. The going had been well prepared, as it always is at a Musketeer event, and the horses had a good track to canter around in three BE100, two BE90 and final Novice class. All of the classes followed pretty much the same track and spectators were afforded a good view of the course from the trade stand area accompanied by good commentary from Clare Prentice, Henry Symington and Spencer Sturmey
Thanks to the efforts of the Musketeer super efficient organising team of Gemma Walker and Sam Hill, Alec was able to focus on the new cross country courses which seemed to ride well and be enjoyed by the riders including the Irish riders Austin O’Conner and Aoife Clarke. Austin won the Novice Section M on the seven year old Irish bred mare She’s My Master by Master Imp, finishing on their dressage score of 31.8 and also picked up fifth and sixth in this class while Aoife Clark was fourth on Skyfall, a new ride for her this year. While Austin had returned from Kentucky, Aoife had also had a successful weekend as part of the FEI Nations Cup silver winning Irish team at Ballindenisk before heading to Whitfield.
Tom How won the Novice Section D on HRS Kiltealy Star and Elly Forbes won the Novice Section E on Drakes Way
View the jumps on the new Whitfield XC course
