Team SJ at Ingleston

Many thanks to Kevin Watson for writing this report on how Ayr Members got on at Incleston:-

Ayr riding club submitted 2 teams (A and B)

Team A   Jane Offer Margon Hendry Caroline Vance Kevin Watson
Team B   Mrs (Mugs) Montgomery Fiona Rawson Julia Kerr Stephen McGregor

We all headed along on what was a very wet dreary day but we all made the most of it to make matters worse as usual we were all last to go with around 67 other competitors before us.

Both Teams did very well however team A were fortunate to have some good rounds leading to a jump off. Being a total novice i found the pressure of having to go in an jump clear quite alot.  However personally for me things started off with the thoughts of wanting to go home with the warm up only jumping 2 jumps then being disqualified at the third (Spooky fence looked like something out of an Austin Powers movie)

Head down out the ring however the rest of the team were so supportive especially Fiona and my wife Kirsteen.  A quick lesson in getting to Grip left and not having my horse take the mick led to me going in jumping clear and things took off from their.

Caroline jumped tremendous on Alfie i think she was the only one to go in 4 times and jump clear out of ALL the competitors she had an outstanding day and a great well done their.

Team A made a tremendous effort with the jump off giving 110%unfortunately after the jump off we had the same amount of faults as another team so it was down to timings.  A quick check of the clock placed ourselves 2nd by the narroest of margins (2 10ths of a second i believe) who cares it was an excellent day.

To round things off as i completed my 2nd last round  i was told that Hector and I thats my horse by the way won best turned out so i was well chuffed to get this for the club.

A special thanks to Cathy who managed to bring me back to earth and calm me down with her little chats.

I would like to say thanks to Ayr riding club for being given the chance to be part of the team and to note a special thanks to Polnoon for putting on such a great day with everyone from all over Scotland being supportive friendly and professional.

Well down to teams A and B.

Kevin