Novice Indoor SJ, 14th Feb at BCA

The year started as usual with a chilly day at BCA for the team SJ. We had a senior team entered this year which consisted of Kellie Pether on Mo, Tracy Patient on Freeway, Charlotte Deacon on Secret and Vikki Hall on Orla. The first round went very well with clears from Tracy, Charlotte and Vikki and just a couple of poles for Mo leaving the team along with a lot of others going through on zero. The course deisgner obviously decided he then neede to get them sorted out and a technical and up to height second round was soon causing plenty of problems. Mo decided it was just a bit much and had a few more poles. Freeway was his ultra consistant self and jumped another clear - he really is our team star. Orla and Secret were both extremely unlucky to have the first fence and then jumped neat clears to leave the team on 8 faults and just out of the placings in 7th. A very good start to the year

Winter Dressage teams, 21st Feb at Bury Farm

The Winter dressage teams were postponed from during the snow in January to the 21st Feb when they ran despite some falling snow! We had 2 senior teams entered and amazingly even with the postponment the original team members all competed. The day started with 2 riders from each team riding BRC HI2 which is slightly harder than a prelim. Julie Middleton and Bertie had an early start to the day but it was worth it to produce a great test for 3rd place in their arena. Special mention to Rupert for not only giving up his hunting to come but to get up so early too. Roz Gibbs was also on early and Lance also did a super test for 6th place in the same arena. Next up were Denise Hackett and Kellie Pether both riding Novice 25, the other team test. Our final 4 riders were Nicola Richardson on Fashion and Charlotte Deacon on Secret riding HI2 and Liz Atkinson on Gizmo and Jill Bradon on Wally doing the Novice. Nic was 8th in her arena, a great debut on the club dressage teams. Charlotte on her first senior teams is coming up trumps and was 2nd with over 70%. Jill and Wally did a consistant novice test and I won my arena with Gizmo whose been on a bit of run with his dressage results! The team of Charlotte, Julie, Jill and myself won the team competition and have therefore qualified for the BRC National Winter Championships at Hartpury College, Gloucs on Apr 3rd.

BRC Winter National Dressage Championships April 3rd at Hartpury College, Gloucestershire

The Chiltern Dressage team were off to the Championships for Easter weekend. Jill's early start time meant she, Charlotte and Charlotte's dad and brother made their way there on Friday evening and had a rather chilly night in a tent and the lorry, but were surprisingly cheerful on Saturday. The wonderful facilities at Hartpury making it a lovely place to stay with horses. Julie and I both travelled up for the day. Jill's test was first and produced a lovely consistent test for 64%. I was on next and was also pleased with our test for 65.6%. Watched some very nice horses go, had some lunch, helped at the SJ and then it was Julie and Charlotte's turns. Julie did a lovely job with Bertie given that Julie shouldn't really have been on board having had her collar bone pinned a few weeks ago. Charlotte was so unfortunate to have the worst of the weather and warmed up in driving rain which Secret didn't think was playing fair. She just started to settle at the end of her test to show what she can do. This left then with 61% and 63.8% respectively. We were all about the middle of our sections and left the team 13th of 20 so a more than respectable result at a National Championship and a good day enjoyed by all.

AREA EVENTERS CHALLENGE, 25th April at Rosehill

The day dawned rather damp after several weeks of bright sunny weather, but it did at least take the sting of the ground which had looked rather hard on walking the course the night before Chiltern started with Akeila in the juniors who jumped well but had an unfortunate technical elimination. Next up was the senior novice team. We weren't quite sure what the horses would make of this new competition where we jumped 7 SJ's and then went straight to a XC round but they all seemed to think this was fine especially Freeway (and Tracy!) who thought eventing without the dressage was what he was bred for. The team was Tracy Patient and Freeway, Liz Atkinson on Gizmo, Charlotte Deacon on Secret and Julie Middleton on Bertie. Tracy had one rub SJ and then a speddy XC round, Charlotte did a super double clear, Liz jumped clear SJ and then had a couple of runouts XC. Julie had an unfortunate day with a course that didn't suit a green horse. However we found that the course was causing everyone else similar problems and 2 good scores was enough for a team placing of 5th and Charlotte was 6th ind with Tracy just behind in 8th. The afternoon was time for the Open and Chiltern were represented by Jo Munting on Jake who jumped a lovely clear in the SJ and just had a hesitation going into the water. Another good day for Chiltern Jumpers!!

Area Horse Trials, 22nd May at Snowball

Summer arrived with a bang for the Area horse trials and a very warm day started with the Open class. Competing were Jo Munting on Jake and after a respectable dressage and only a small blip over a huge SJ course, Jake was off par and retired XC. Just great to have Chiltern represented at this top level where there were only 5 competitors from the Area.

Next up was the Chiltern Novice team of Charlotte Deacon on Secret, Kellie Pether on Mo, Julie Middleton on Hero, and Liz Atkinson on Gizmo. A relatively inexperienced team put up a really good show - Charlotte finished on her dressage score to be placed 6th in her arena. Kellie managed to jump with no back shoes on to have a pole in the SJ and just one stop XC. Hero was thrown in rather at the deep end for his first ODE and did brilliantly for one run out in the SJ and XC. Gizmo led the dressage but spoilt that by adding more than his dressage score in both the SJ and XC but completing was the aim and that we did.

Snowball had put a great effort into the going and we were lucky to have Sarah Adams and Nicky Clarke willing to offer their help for the day so that our teams could compete - Thank you.

Area Dressage 6th June at Hambledon

The Area dressage was run this year by Chiltern so it was a big day for the club both in terms of competing and running the show. We had teams enetered in the L&SE dressage, Area Novice and Area Open. The L&SE team of Jo Munting on Jake, Nicola Richardson on Fashion and Georgia Chapman on Crumbs were placed 5th with Georgia 3rd ind in a large class. The Novice team of Nicola, Jo, and Kellie were 8th in another large competitve section. The Open team consists of 3 people riding at Novice and one Elem. This was Isla Gilmour on Lordy, Caroline Frank on Maisie, Charlotte Deacon on Secret and Sarah Adams on Luke. Caroline won her arena which qualifies them for the National Championships. We had 2 riders in the junior prelim section - Georgia Chapman on Crumbs and Akeila Lynam on Buzz who were 2nd and 4th respectively and should also qualify Georgia for the Nationals. Along with a successful day from the organisation point of view that made a great day for Chiltern.

Area SJ 25th July at Wellington

We set off bright and early for the Team SJ at Wellington with the novice team on first starting at 8.30! The team was Julie Middleton on Hero, Liz Atkinson on Gizmo, Tracy Patient on Freeway and Jo Claridge on Melody. The first round went well and we finished on a clear score with the coures causing plenty of faults. Our second round saw another clear from Julie and Jo so they were into the jump off when we suddenly realised that no team would finish on zero and as we were on 4 faults the whole team would also be jumping of to decide 1st and 2nd place. Not a usual situation for Chiltern as I think others could tell from our nosy support of each other as the clear rounds in the jump off saw us WIN! Julie had also steamed round on Hero to win individually and Jo was 2nd. So off to LIncoln for the BRC National Championships in Sept.
The other ring started the day with Style jumping where you are marked on not only your jumping faults but the way you and your horse complete the course. Gaelann and Ultima were competing as an ind and were placed a very creditable 6th. Gaelann and Jo Munting with Jake were also competing as ind in the intermediate and a double clear saw Jo placed 5th after the JO. Not sure the last time every Chiltern rider went home from jumping teams with a rosette.....!!

the winning Novice Team Photo with kind permission of www.pleasureprints.net