Winter Novice SJ teams - Kellie Pether

Sunday 10th February saw the Chiltern team heading off to BCA for the Area Show Jumping. As usual the weather did not dissapoint and was wet and cold!
Our team consisted of myself riding Maddie ( newly clipped and without her mane!) Liz riding Pie, Heather riding Sky and last but by no means least Charlotte riding Secret.
It wasn't too early a start with our first round starting at 11am,  So with 9 horses mucked out and Maddie's legs washed I set off in the rain for BCA, by the time I arrived I was directed to park in a large puddle which rapidly developed into a small lake, (this unfortunatly is where my phone later ended up! - Blackberry's do not swim!!)
Heather was the first to jump and went clear, I was second and despite my best efforts Maddie jumped clear! Next was Liz who also jumped clear! last to jump was Secret and as usual her and Charlotte produced a faultless round! this meant CRC was going into the second round on 0!!
Now we had the long wait for the second round! Heather very kindly supplied a warm place to sit and some much needed hot soup!
Even so the weather was getting worse and we were all very cold and wet!
At last we walked the course for the second round and only had an hour or so to wait for the second round! They had put the fences up and even brought in a new filler - a wall!
At this point I think we all of us horses included had reached the conclusion that we were mad!!
At last it was our turn! Heather again jumped a clear round! next was me, who unfortunately due to the cold weather forgot to use my legs (yes Giles I know!) and we had the first fence down, after that Maddie jumped a lovely round, if a little slow! Liz came next Pie had a bit of a blip and last to go was Charlotte who jumped clear! this meant we finished on 10 - not a bad result considering the conditions!
Fingers crossed the dressage at Snowball Farm in a couple of weeks has better weather!!

Winter Dressage Teams

As is to be expected for a team event the weather was challenging with snow for much of he day and it was very very cold. Chiltern had 3 teams entered with an overall entry of 29 senior teams and quite a lot of juniors.
Liz Atkinson rode Pie, I rode Ozzie, Amy Thrower rode River, Kellie Pether rode Maddie, Tracy Patient rode Limerick, Charlotte Deacon rode Secret, Denise rode Jedi, Heather rode......., Hayley rode and Caroline rode Quin. Unfortunately Claire Clarke had a blow out in her lorry on the M4 so didn’t make it  - but did get rescued!
Jeanette was our helper in the afternoon which would have been harder as the judge for one of the tests had gone to the wrong venue and so one class was running very late.

Chiltern Yellow (Amy, Liz, Heather and Charlotte) were 6th, the other teams were unplaced and one sadly became not a team when Claire had a blow out – Thankfully no one hurt and they got home safely
Ind results Amy 3rd, Caroline 7th, Heather 10th, Liz  11th Jo 12th Charlotte 14th all out of somewhere in the high 20’s

Combined training report - Julie Middleton

On Sunday 21st April two teams from Chiltern Riding Club took part in the Area Combined Training competition which was held at Rosehill, nr Henley. This was out third attempt at taking part after the event was postponed twice due to bad weather. Each team had two members who rode a prelim dressage test and then jumped a show-jumping course of 75cm, and two members who rode a novice dressage test and then jumped a course of 85cm. 
The Blue team of Roz Gibbs and Sir Lancelot, Helen Keen and Rathmalone Freedie, Charlotte Deacon and Song Secret and Kellie Pether and Cornish Colours all did very well but their team was just out of the placings.
The Yellow team of Charlotte Deacon and Loughanroe Clover, Becky Janes and Mirzo, Caroline Frank and Shannondale Quin and myself and Lady Jessicka had a very good day and were placed 3rd in the team event. This put us just behind High Wycombe Riding Club and Berkshire County Riding Club. These are both big clubs so to narrowly miss out on a win to them was a very good achievement. Individually Caroline won her section with an amazing 80% dressage score and clear show-jumping round which booked her a place at the Festival of the hunter championships at Aston Le Walls in June. I was 2nd in my arena and Becky 4th in hers. All in all a great day out for the club. Well done to all who took part. 

Eventers Challenge - Liz Atkinson

The Eventers Challenge also finally took place having been postponed from October due to the weather (do you see a trend here!) 
We were sadly down on numbers for this having had a novice team entered but disasters struck Julie and Charlotte on the day to mean it was just me and Pie in the Challenge 90 and Heather Magee with Sky in the 100.  I was up first and an unfortunate delay to the start of proceeding meant an hour wandering around the warm up plus much confusion from Pie on being asked to canter straight out of the SJ arena and head out XC meant a runout at fence 3 But we improved on the way round and hopefully he’d have the idea another time!  Heather did us proud jumping her first competitive 100 XC course to finish double clear.

RWHS Top score jumping

Following a win for Annaliese Turnbull and George and good placing for Alice Thatcher and Karat at the qualifier, they bth headed to RWHS as par tof the Area 6 teams. Annaliese was on first on Friday in the senior intermedaite and a good clear just not quick enough for ind placing but helped the team towards 5th place. Alice's turn on Saturday in the Junior Novice left her also just outside the ind placings but good performances from all the team resulted in a win for the team

Area Horse Trials

We had members competing at all the different levels at the horse trials though unfortunately not enough at any for a team. Louise Austin started the day with her baby giant Tinker in the 80 but unfortunatley the small tight SJ arena was too much for him this time - hopefully they'll be back next year. Next up was the 90cm with Alice Thatcher and Karat in the juniors and Julie Middleton with Jessie and me with Pie in the seniors. Alice jumped a brilliant fast double clear to make the jumping count and win the juniors. Julie had just one pole SJ to add to her dressage and finished 4th. Heather Magee with Sky and Sarah Kane with Lily both had a good day with just one blip each XC round the 100. The day finished with the Open (100+) with Tracy with LImerick and Annaliese with George 3rd and 5th respectively and both qualified for the Nationals with Alice. An excellent day - and the sun shone too

Area Dressage

We were again running the Area dressage qualifier at Hambleden so lots of members out in force both to ride and help and it was a great day both in how it all went and the CRC results. Always good to be handing out the rosettes to our members.
The Area prelim team of Amy Thrower with River, Tracy Patient with Limerick, Charlotte Deacon with Bruno, and Julie Middleton on Jessie was 3rd with Amy 5th and Tracy 7th. The Area open team was Sarah Kane with Lily, Kate Lockwood with Nerro, Charlotte Deacon with Secret and Caroline Frank with Quin were just out of the placings but Sarah won Nov 27 and Kate was 2nd in Elem.. Caroline was 3rd on her Ind novice test and Sarah was 4th in the L&SE prelim.

Area SJ

We were back at Hambleden this year for the Area SJ on a scorching day with a great mix of new members doing first teams and regulars. First up was Tracy and Limerick in the Open and a great 2 rounds left them 2nd and qualified for the Nationals. Next was the Area Novice where we had some genuine novice combinations for whom a very colourful set of fences was a bit much. But great 2 rounds from new members Natasha Kalderen and Harriet Burton. The juniors then showed the way with a win for Florence Dighton on Hector and 5th for Amelia Dighton on Blue - again both new members and we hope to see lots more of them. They are also both qualified for the nationals. Natasha then did the style jumping and was 6th. Last up was the intermediate with Natasha, Julie and myself in the seniors and Megan Hughes and Arthur in the juniors. Again best performance came from Megan with 2nd.

BRC National Horse Trials Championship

We had 3 members at Swalcliffe for the Horse Trials National championships. Alice Thatcher and Karat in the Junior 90 which was a ODE and Annaliese Turnbull with George and Tracy Patient with LImerick in the Senior Open which was a 3DE. So Friday started with trot up for Annaliese and Tracy and pleased to say both horses and riders appeared sound! Then it was Alice's turn. A lot of hard work on the dressage since the qualifier had obviosuly paid off with a good test for 37. The SJ caused a little concern as was bolder and brighter than they have been used too but some great riding and Karat flew round. On to the fun bit and they stormed round the XC to add nothing to their dressage and finish 5th.
Tracy and Annaliese then had their dressage tests before heading out to check out the roads and tracks course for the next day. This involved a team manager on a mountain bike for the first time in a very long time! All set with their times for speed and endurance it was time to relax for the evening. Saturday morning was first up for Tracy with Annaliese not far behind keeping the 10 min box crews busy. They both made light work of the roads and tracks and steeplechase to sart the XC with no penalties. LImerick and Tracy flew round with no problems on a course that was throwing up a fair share of problems. Unfortunatley Annaliese had a mistake and runout but also very sadly George was lame shortly after XC and went home as vets were concerned to the extent of possible injury. At this point Tracy was up to 15th place and still all to play for in the SJ which is run reverse order. Nerves were kicking in but a really well ridden round added just one pole to move up to 12th place.