Bathed in glorious April sunshine, Northallerton Equestrian Centre played host to a full British Eventing (BE) schedule over the Easter weekend with sections covering BE80T to BE100 Plus.
Competitors travelling to North Yorkshire could enjoy the unseasonable warmth without worrying about the going being too dry, as proprietor, Tina Walker and her team at Northallerton (1) had everything covered…
Katie Brickman and Black Jack V Photo courtesy Paul Dobson
Saturday was the sole day of competition for BE80T riders, with Kay Traves on Amadeus XI, Helen Morson on Bay Chap and Jodie Burnley on Smooth Lady all winning their respective sections. Kay and Helen both on a score of 33.3 whilst Jodie finished on her dressage score of 29.3.
The BE90 was extremely popular with six sections across both days. Katie Brickman won the Section A on Black Jack V with a good score of 25.6 after a superb dressage with only 20.8 penalties and then just 0.8 of a time fault on the cross country and a rail down for four faults in the show jumping.
The other winners of the day were Stephanie Lynch on Cool Sunrise who beat Victoria Dennis and Jemoon Wolken Dream by just 0.2 points in Section B and Baren Major and Emlyn taking first place in Section C on their dressage score of 27.5.
The two BE100 classes on Saturday were won by James Rushbrooke on Castlesize Go Easy, and Sophie Platt on Penpont Showgirl, both enjoying double clears to finish on their dressage scores and round up a successful day’s competition on Saturday.
The weather was equally good on Sunday with the fence judges being treated to ice lollies to help keep them cool. Event Organiser, Tina Walker however was left lolly-less!
“We’ve taken out 60 ice lollies on the course and none came back, not even for the organiser!”
Both the BE90 and BE100 cross country courses rode really well, with the fence judges having very few incidents to report, despite some good technical questions of horse and rider. But far and away the talking point of the cross country was the ground! Tina and her team have worked extremely hard to combat the effect of the extremely dry weather, and it showed, with many riders pleasantly surprised. One rider Chris McGran commented
“I’ve been eventing all over since the 1960s and I’m so impressed with the ground here today, the work that has been put in really showed on the course walk”
“A huge amount work has gone into getting the ground to where it is today” Tina told us “We worked at least 80 hours on it last week to ensure it was perfect for today”
She added that the work will not stop there and, as soon as the event wraps up, Tina and her team will be back working on repairing the ground and looking ahead to keep it in tip top condition in the face of more dry weather for the rest of the season. Riders looking to enter Northallerton’s second BE competition in July can look forward to more great going!
Back to April’s event and the BE90 sections. Emma Savage took first place in section I with Mummy’s Dream adding just 0.4 of a cross country time fault to her dressage, whilst Katie Stephens-Grandy and Mr Music won Section J finishing on her Dressage score of 27.5.
Bradley, riding in purple in remembrance of his friend "I lost a close friend on the 16th November, Hayley Simpson, who sadly passed away with cancer. I’m wearing these colours in honour as she told me these are her favourite colours"
Photo courtesy Paul Dobson
In BE90 Section K, 15-year-old Bradley Allsopp from Pontefract and his 15.1hh bay Connemara, Ferodo took top honours with a score of 31.7 adding just 2.4 cross country time faults to their dressage score. Bradley and Ferodo have been together for three years and the work they have put in is really paying off; dressage is the phase they have had to put the most work into, getting regular lessons with Tori Peters while jumping is Ferodo’s forte
“He jumps everything I put in front of him!” says Bradley
They have just come off the back of a win at Breckonbrough and are now setting their sights on Richmond Horse Trials in two weeks’ time. All going well, they plan to move up to BE100 at Shelford.
The last four sections of Sunday were the BE100s including BE100 Open and BE100 Plus. BE100 section L was won by Jordan Kavanagh and Miss Offaly Skippy by 1.2 points from Fleur Lemke and Georgia Rain in second and Rachel Clark with Wot Glamour rounding up the top three with a score of 32.6.
BE100 Open Section N was won by Amy Roberts and Lionheart with a score of 28.2 from Maisie Birkbeck and Burlea Seamerchant, AKA Sparkle on a score of 29.5, and Sophie Trotter and Aosta Sam placing third on 32.3.
Maisie and Sparkle have been eventing together for three years and certainly make a great team, finishing on their dressage score with an impressive round cross country. Maisie cited fence seven as the most challenging question of the day.
Next up for 15-year-old Masie is Badminton! Whilst it’s easy to believe she is storming up the levels, for now she is going as a spectator for cross country day and confirms she will compete next at Frenchfield. Maisie is a very busy girl. As well as Sparkle, she says she is extremely lucky to be able to event her sister’s horse Sisco whilst her sister is studying is at University and, as if that wasn’t enough, talented Maisie is retraining a 17.1hh ex racehorse for her dad!
The last section of the day, the BE100 Plus, was won by Louise Oldroyd on Full Throttle II who scored 29.8 adding four show jumping faults to her Dressage score of 25.8 and going clear on cross country to round off a great weekend for Grass Roots Eventing, in beautiful sunshine with perfect ground!
Article by Helena Barras
