National Cross Country Champions Crowned
| National Cross-Country Champions Crowned The final of The British Horse Society Cross-Country Championships, sponsored by South Essex Insurance Brokers, took place on 27 September at Eland Lodge Equestrian Centre, Derbyshire. Hundreds of BHS members travelled from all over the country, each rider eager to secure one of the prestigious titles on offer. The three Championship classes, Novice, Pairs (both over 2' 9" course) and Open (3' 3") were the climax to a year of qualifying events. |  |
The winner of the Novice Championship was 13-year-old Amy Foster riding Celtic Gamble. Amy, from Dale Abbey in Derbyshire was thrilled with the result, which has been the highlight of a great year for the partnership.
She said: "It was a bit of a surprise to win I didn't think I'd done that well. I was first to go so not having seen anyone else it was a bit of luck and guess work really!"
The Pairs title went to Carole Cook and Dick Robinson, from West Malling, Kent. The couple were delighted with the win, especially Carole for whom this was a second National title - she and ex-racehorse Budding Annie were Novice Champions in 2007.
"Annie's had a few accidents recently but she's suddenly just come back and done this again which is fantastic," said Carole. "Finnegan, the horse Dick rode, is not very brave on his own but he'll follow Annie over anything, so they work well as a pair."
This year's Open Champion was Jane Cleal from Hampshire. Her gutsy little New Forest pony, Farriers Brown Bear, belied his size to take the honours ahead of some far longer legs!
"I was just pleased to get round," said Jane. "This is really big for him. Because he's small it's difficult for us to get the time, so we just had to take really tight turns and that's difficult with these bigger fences as you can't risk catching anything on them."
It was fitting that second place in this national final went to Louise Gattoni and her 22-year-old gelding, Mardis Gras who will now hang up his horseshoes following the championship.
"I'll still do the smaller classes with him," explains Louise, "but it's more of a struggle for him to recover after the bigger ones so he won't be doing any opens or anything like that anymore. I decided I'd make this my last one and I thought it was quite fitting that he came second. It's been a really, really special day for us."
Added on: 30/09/09.
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