competition news Blackburn & District clean up at Dressage and Mounted Games!
Blackburn & District Branch of the Pony Club has had its best winter results ever, winning Area 4 winter leagues in both Dressage and Mounted Games, as the Club members themselves explain...
Dressage For the second consecutive year Blackburn and District won the Pony Club Area 4 Winter League dressage hosted by Holcomb Hunt at Landlords Farm, Wigan. Scores were accumulated over a series of four competitions between October and March. The Blackburn team were trained by Jayne Jolly and practised at Crow Wood Equestrian Centre on Friday evenings.
Dressage coordinator Tilly Latham-Taylor said “We are so proud of our team, their dedication and hard work has paid off for the second year running. Not only did we win the winter league overall we also had individual winners in the Novice, Intermediate and Open Dengie Championship.” Sophie Murphy on Casper won the Novice, Ricki Riley on My Noble Valentine won the intermediate and Emily Latham- Taylor on Adette R, affectionaly known as ‘Roo’ in the Open. Jade Varley on Lucy also rode as an individual Novice and qualified for the ride-off.
The Blackburn team members then went on to seek to achieve individual qualification places at the National Championships and Emily Latham-Taylor was individual winner of the winter league to earn her ticket with a whopping score of 84.82%! Ricki Riley was 5th and Sophie Murphy 6th. Jade Varley came second in the Dengie Novice and she qualified for the Nationals too. Sophie Murphy won the Intermediate and Ricki came second, which meant they also both qualified for the National Championships. Emily finished 3rd in the Dengie Open.
Emily Latham-Taylor said “I am absolutely delighted to have won the winter league representing Blackburn. I feel that this winter league really represents the hard work that the whole Blackburn team has put into dressage as a discipline, bringing us from being unheard of in dressage to dominating the score boards! A special thank you to everyone involved over the last few years… the DC and Assistant DC at Blackburn, all teams and parents, and a special thank you to my mum for organising it all and to Jayne Jolly for her expert training! Finally a big thank you to my horse, Roo. She makes all the hard work and training a huge pleasure. I can’t believe how lucky I am to be able to work with a horse like her. Onwards and upwards with the Blackburn team!”
Blackburn is trained by Grade 2 Dressage rider Jayne Jolly who competed at Prix-St-Georges level herself. Jayne commented “The team members have all worked really hard and are a pleasure to train. It’s really rewarding to watch their progress and their flatwork is standing them in great stead for other disciplines.” Jade Varley said of her experience: “My mare Lucy went very well, she has great paces and always tries her best, whatever the weather! Our training with Jayne over the past two years has made a massive difference. I always concentrate on accuracy as that is extremely important in dressage. There were 16 in my class and I’m feeling over the moon! I have been doing less competing lately because I have my GCSE’s this year and I decided I would focus more on those, but when I qualified for the ride-off it was too much of an opportunity to miss!”
Other Blackburn members who did well at Dressage include Anna Haslam on Champagne Charlie, Millie Cavannagh on Max, Minnie Glover on Oddy and Katie Dutton Paddy. Minnie was delighted with her 6th place in the Grassroots Individuals and Cheeky Charlie had a great day!
Jade and Lucy relaxing at home and studying until the Nationals
Anna Haslam and Champagne Charlie – who pulls a face for the camera!
Blackburn smashes the Mounted Games too!
Blackburn has a very young Junior Mounted Games team ranging from 6-10 years old and they have showed brilliant commitment throughout the season at training and competition. Known as the Blackburn Beagles, this young team has stayed focused throughout and totally deserved to win. It came down to a nail biting finish with just a one point win over Lancaster Stars! One of the Blackburn children in the team is still riding on lead rein and so doesn’t canter. The other three team members created enough space between Blackburn and the other teams to still win. The camaraderie amongst the youngsters is great to see.
Blackburn won 4 out of 6 of the monthly winter competitions throughout the series and were the overall winners. The series is held at Myerscough October and March, hosted by Fylde branch of the Pony Club On average 11 Pony club teams compete each time, one Friday night a month.
Blackburn & District also has a senior team (they finished 5th in the winter series) and a non-competitive mini team so all children in the branch aged between 4 years and 14 years can take part in Mounted Games. Beyond the age of 14 the children can continue their mounted games fun in with the Mounted Games Association of Great Britain (MGAGB). The team is trained by Elaine Barker Blackburn DC, who is celebrating her 30th year training Mounted Games. Elaine is also the Lancashire Co- ordinator for the MGAB. Of the success Elaine said: “This stands us in great stead for the 1st round for the Prince Philip Cup Areas in May at Lancaster. We want to be first or second to get to the Zone final in July.”
If you are interested in the Mounted Games Association of Great Britain or becoming a member of Blackburn & District Pony Club visit http://branches.
pcuk.org/blackburn/
Emily Latham-Taylor with her prizes Jade and Lucy strut their stuff Equine Page 44
The winning Blackburn Beagles (Junior) team pictured above L-R Ella Cheetham, Taryn Barker, Katie Dutton and Will Atkinson
www.theequinesite.co.uk
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