Area 1 Horse Trials
On Sunday 6th July South Lammermuir Riding Club made the three and a half hour journey to the BRC Area 1 Horse Trials at Barskimming, Mauchline, in Ayrshire. The very early start was worth it, though, as the club won the Novice section.

The team, consisting of Amy Brown (Kasilia), Jenny Christie (Trendy Roc), Leah Fleming (Shawhill Hayboy) and Ailsa MacTaggart (Cumano) were all in high spirits on arrival, despite having to be towed into the lorry park!

Leah and Ailsa did cracking dressage tests, both getting scores of 31.4. Jenny and Amy weren’t far behind so it was a good start for the team.

The show jumping course was a good test of everyone’s memories, with a sneaky loop back to jump 8 causing a few eliminations for competitors when they missed it out. Fortunately, SLRC were concentrating - Jenny went clear, Ailsa and Leah had just one fence down and Amy had two down.

The cross country course was a testing one and certainly rendered the team speechless when they got to jump 4 when walking it. The first of three water jumps, jump 4 consisted of a log jump followed by a steep slope, deep burn and then a scramble up to the dyke at jump 5. Given that the team had horses who are relatively new to eventing, it was going to be a challenge!

Jenny was the SLRC trailblazer and tackled the first water with no issues, but at the second water Trendy Roc decided he’d didn’t like it quite as much as the first one and had a stop. The rest of their round was clear, coming in just as Leah set off on her round. Shawhill Hayboy jumped like a pro and came in clear, Leah grinning from ear to ear as she crossed the finish. Ailsa was more than apprehensive before her round as while waiting for her start slot, she’d seen a lot of people start, but very few finishing. The riderless horses galloping towards the finish weren’t helping the nerves either! Still, despite the butterflies, Ailsa and Cumano went clear and were delighted to finish. Last to go, Amy and Kasilia flew round with no issues and showed us all how it should be done.

There was a long wait for the results, but in the meantime Amy was doing the Intermediate class as an individual with Moonstone Bo. Completing a clear, fast round cross country, Amy was certainly looking like being placed.

After a dry day, the heavens opened as the results were announced, but it was worth the wait as SLRC Novice team had not only won the Novice Horse Trials, but qualified for the British championships down in Warwickshire in August. Ailsa, Amy and Jenny were all first in their sections, and Leah third in hers. On top of that SLRC were the only team to have all four riders complete. No mean achievement, given the carnage on the cross country course!

The intermediate results followed and we were thrilled that Amy and Bo were second in the Intermediate, narrowly missing out on qualifying for Warwickshire by 0.3 of a penalty.

Thanks to Kilmacolm and Kilallan Riding Club for running a very successful horse trials, and thanks also to Hon Heather Galbraith for allowing BRC to run the qualifier over the BE course at Eglinton.

Warwickshire here we come….!