Novice Indoor Show Jumping Qualifier
Ingliston House Stud, Bishopton
Saturday 6th November ‘04

The Riding Club fielded two novice teams for this latest qualifier – and , in spite of the usual problems which seem to beset teams, we did make it with two full teams of four. Many thanks to Susan Mitchell who agreed to be a sub on the Thursday night – a tribute to her powers of persuasion to be able to get transport, babysitters and everything else arranged at such short notice! (Susan’s powers of persuasion seemed to work wonders in the actual competition too – when the very scary filler that her horse Bouncer detested, was removed after the warm up class!! Not quite sure how she managed to pull that one off!)

The list of disasters this time amounted to a lame horse, a sub with no transport, a chef d’equippe with raging toothache and a lorry with its exhaust scraping the ground! However, as usual, our intrepid competitors did finally get there and put up a very respectable performance indeed – with the A team finishing second (although we really did want to get to Hartbury really!)

The teams were as follows:-

A Team
Caroline Quarm with Rosie
Lorraine Young with Sea Jay
Elana Chilton with Oakey
Susan Mitchell with Bouncer

B Team
Mugs Montgomery with Hank
Julia Kerr with Respectable Pursuit
Kimberley Vallance with Moon Coin II
Fiona Rawson with Harvey

Many thanks to Kirstine Bissett who stood in for me as Chef d’equippe first thing in the morning – I’m afraid I had to do a visit to the emergency dentist while the warm up class was underway!

The A team finished on a final total score of 8 to end the competition second to Kilmacolm. I promised Caroline that I wouldn’t mention the small technical problem which blighted her first round – so I won’t; you’ll have to ask her yourself!

The B team all had a good day but ended with a fair number of penalties – Hank decided he wasn’t going to be a show jumper on Saturday and Fiona’s baby horse just got awfully tired in the second round and rolled a few poles.

We all had a really good day out and are looking forward to the next one – so anyone who wants to join the show jumping teams please let me know and we can have even more teams the next time!

Irene Gillespie (dentally challenged chef d’equippe)