Report from the British Riding Clubs National Championships
Lincolnshire Showground, Lincoln
11 & 12 September ‘04
Ayr Riding Club was fortunate enough to have two teams and one individual qualified for the Championships this year. I was the unfortunate whose horse has been off the road all summer so I volunteered to organise the show jumping team and ultimately the trip to Lincoln.
As a first time Chef d’equippe, I have to say it was something of a learning experience and I think I can now recite backwards the requirements for flu vaccination certificates at National Championships! We had a number of setbacks in the week prior to our departure – including one poor team member who discovered that her flu vac, which she had been happily updating for years, wasn’t quite right. We were absolutely gutted when she wasn’t allowed to go – so be warned any future competitors, they are really strict about this.
Due to flu vacs, lack of transport and a number of other insurmountable problems we were now down to two teams of three and still our one intrepid individual. The team members were :-
Novice Dressage: Jane Kennedy with Lawyer’s Silk (Timmy), Nicola Jamieson with The Roustabout (Jason), Melanie Scott with Gemma
Intermediate Show Jumping: Jane Belding with Middleton Rozella (Luggsy), Nicola Jamieson with the Roustabout (Jason), Melanie Scott with Gemma
Yes – you may have noticed some repeats in here – who says Ayr Riding Club folks aren’t versatile?! A special thanks has to go to poor Melanie for agreeing to be drafted into the dressage team – Gemma’s a super little horse but dressage is not her strongest discipline!
Our individual qualifier for Elementary 51 and Riding Test 9 was Kerrie Ann Calder with Melcaro B (Carrie)
Our merry band set off on Friday to head for Lincoln – apart from Nicola and her mum Christine who set off on Thursday and got stuck in the most horrendous traffic. I had a despairing phone call at 11:10pm from poor Christine who’d finally made it to Lincoln but couldn’t find the way in!
All was well in the end and we were all ready for the fray on Saturday morning – our thanks to Christine Jamieson who’d organised all of our accommodation – it was absolutely superb.
Our show jumping team jumped well – in spite of horribly hard going - and ended the day 11th out of 19 teams – we were running with a big handicap with only three team members to start with.
The Novice Dressage team didn’t end up in the ribbons but did well with Nicola winning her arena (more on that later!!) and Jane was 9th in her arena.
Kerrie Ann had two good performances and ended with an 8th place in her arena for Elementary 51.
Our
star of the day however has to be Nicola Jamieson who won the Novice Dressage
Championship with a fabulous mark of 79.17% - way ahead of her nearest rival. The
judge’s comments on her test were ‘ A harmonious partnership – a pleasure
to judge’ having seen her test I can only agree - it looked great
to me!
The presentations finally happened at around 7:00pm and Nicola and Jason left the arena with a new rug, a silver salver, two fabulous rosettes and two sashes (one each!!). She was also interviewed by Horse & Hound – Hugh Grant eat your heart out! I’ve promised that the Scottish contingent will boost the circulation of H&H the week of 23rd September – as long as they promise to put a photo in!
We all headed home on Sunday morning and managed to make it home through the howling wind and pouring rain – poor Christine didn’t have the greatest trip home either – since she forgot to turn at Scotch Corner and ended up in Edinburgh!!
We all had a great time and can’t wait for next year! We intend to do absolutely everything next year so make sure you put your names down for every conceivable team possible!!
Irene Gillespie (Chef d’equippe in training!)