Waterboatman's excellent performance at the BRC Dressage To Music Championships at Addington, earned us a splendid 3rd place against very tough opposition. Not bad for our first attempt!
Sue Odom
It was with some surprise that the WORC team of Amy Griffin, Clare Hayley, Amanda Atkinson and I set off with our trusty mounts, Meggie, Lulu, Chloe and Ma to Lincoln showground on September 5th for the Riding Club Championships. Surprise, because the show was going ahead when all other shows had been cancelled due to the very wet weather.
Amy arrived first and found us a brilliant spot on the edge of the lorry park where we could all gather and keep in contact with each other throughout our time there. It also proved to be a relatively mud free area enabling us all to leave after the show with some ease. Elsewhere lorries were being towed onto the site and again, towed off at the end. In fact it was awful walking our horses to our temporary stable over a sea of deep ruts and through “muddy soup”! It was clearly evident that a high level of presentation was going to be impossible this year! Wellies and waterproof gear were definitely the order of the weekend when not on horseback.
Image: WORC helpers
The traditional BBQ on the Friday was out of the question this year due to torrential rain but we all remained positive having walked the course which looked beautiful, well up to height and a challenge. Clare’s three sons were particularly excited by the thought of a night in horsebox with Grandad Barry and their Mum so I’m not sure how much sleep that particular vehicle saw but all emerged bright and breezy next morning.
After all the rain it was obvious that the warm up area and show jumping course would not remain immaculate for long and so it proved. Our team was one of only six teams to complete the first round with a score of zero but it was the second round which was to prove the most influential. Refusals were had by the dozen and poles fell everywhere (pity the poor ring stewards) largely due to the sodden and muddy ground. Scores of 32, 48 and more were not unusual! Unfortunately Amy and Clare had the worst of it as they were the team’s first two riders because after Clare’s horse, Lulu, slipped badly on landing at the second to last fence, resulting in a nasty fall for Clare, an announcement was made that for the third and fourth riders of each team the show jumps would all be moved. Everyone was so relieved but, of course for Amy and Clare it was too late, both had been eliminated. Amy was so disappointed after her brilliant first round, and Clare was so frustrated that her fall had marred an almost foot perfect round from Lulu.
Amanda and I did debate whether to risk our horses jumping in such conditions as the team’s chance was gone, but jump we did. There were sticky moments but we were so proud of our horses who took the rain and going in their stride. For Ma, I guess it was jumping out of mud whilst out hunting that stood her in good stead but Chloe had never had to cope with anything similar before so was exceptionally brave. The showground was like a lake by the time Amanda jumped!
In the end there were only six individual double clears out of nearly 100 riders and as for the team scores well, if I tell you Cambridge were placed with a total of 36 penalties, it will give you some idea of how high scoring the majority of the rounds were.
Image: Clare and Lulu
Now I don’t want you to read this and think what a terrible time we all had because in fact it just wasn’t like that. We were proud to represent our club, we were proud of our horses for valiantly dealing as best they could, considering the atrocious conditions (when we left, even the stables were waterlogged inside) but above all we had had fun. After putting up the practice fence a few times and being splattered by horses jumping it almost looked as muddy as Clare’s three lads – ask them if the mud mattered, I’m sure they would say, “NO!”
Thanks team and all our lovely supporters. It was a marvellous achievement to get to Lincoln and one we will never forget. Oh yes and thanks to Amy’s mum for sending up some cakes and to Simon who had to be a steward at the dressage arena all morning so that our team could compete at the Championships.
Angie Handley
Just to let you all know that Matthew Izod and Archer came 4th at the Junior Horse Trial Championships on Friday 8th August at Offchurch Bury. They had a dressage score off 34.7 penalties, went clear show jumping and clear cross country, but had just 9 time penalties which made their final score 43.7. We were very pleased with Archer as Matthew was not very well so Archer had to do most off the work today.
Lenore Izod
Karen was the first competitor of the day at 8.00am and got WORC off to a flying start with a clear round. Amanda followed also with a clear round and although Simon set off fast, he ended up with 12 faults, which put the team out of the places. However, this competition just gets tougher and tougher. This year, all of the top 10 teams finished on no faults and were separated purely on their times. There were 83 teams competing and the results were endless, as you can imagine. Even the team placed 36th still only had 8 faults. We didn’t work out our exact placing – but there’s always next year!
Bev Townsend
I have just received some excellent news for our Novice Show-jumping team – due to the high number of teams that competed, their 2nd place was enough to qualify for the National Championships at Lincoln on 6th/7th September, so ‘Congratulations!’ to Michelle Rayleigh, Amy Griffin, Angie Handley & Clare Haley.
Bev Townsend
I would just like to say a very big ‘THANK YOU’ to Angie Handley, Amy Griffin and Michelle Rayleigh along with all their supporters for being so supportive at the area S.J. event at Malvern. I had decided to bite the bullet and put my name forward to compete at this area competition, but hadn't met any of the other team members until I arrived at destination. Angie greeted me on arrival and made me feel welcome and as I met the other members they were also supportive and made me feel very welcome too.
We all had a fabulous day in spite of the sweltering heat, and I was really made to feel part of the team. The 2nd place we achieved was an added bonus! Thanks to you all.
Clare Haley
Image: SJ team 2008
(Team picture: left to right - Clare minus Lulu, Angie/Ma, Michelle/Honey, Amy/Meggie)
When the forecast was for temperatures in their eighties on Sunday 27th July, WORC riders knew that they were in for a scorching hot day both at the Area competition and at Hickstead. Our respective showgrounds were both a long distance to travel to but determined as we were to ride for our club, five of us set off for the Malvern Hills and three to Sussex.
In Malvern we had a new team member. Clare Hayley had put her name forward to ride and it was great to meet both her, her horse Lulu and Barry, her father. They soon got into the swing of supporting everyone from WORC and sharing our ups and downs. What an asset they proved to be to our final scores but, more than that, they, like all our helpers and riders, contributed to create an absolutely wonderful team spirit on the day. Thank you Clare for putting your name forward to Bev, it was great to have you and Lulu with us. Hopefully your brilliant performance will inspire you to be a team member again soon.
We had a team of four jumping in the Novice S/J class and then one individual braving the Open S/J class. Whilst there we also put ourselves forward for scrutiny in the Style Jumping competition. As the scores below show everyone did exceptionally well indeed.
Amy and Meggie were the Novice team’s pathfinders and they did two cracking clear rounds both at the 2’6’’ and 2’9’’ heights. They just get better and better as their partnership develops in such a positive direction. Clare was next to go and despite the small arena and slippery going, Lulu cleverly managed to manoeuvre her large frame (she is a very tall mare, approx. 17hh) around the sharp turns and come back clear as well. After Clare, Michelle and Honey set off and jumped a beautiful clear first round only to hear the commentator announce that she had incurred 3 time penalties – such bad luck! Then in the second round, when Honey seemed to be jumping with an even better rhythm, they had an unfortunate stop when Honey just didn’t have the right stride into the double, the very last fence. Boy were we all disappointed for them! But well done Michelle – so pleased you were able to get your lorry fixed in time as it was great to have you in the team again. As the 4th member it was up to my good old mare, Ma, and I to jump clear if we were to match Bromyard’s team score of 3 double clears in each stage of the competition, the only team to do so out of 17 others. No pressure then! Well we did manage a clear in the first round but had 4 faults in the second which was very disappointing- sorry team! Nevertheless, we were placed 2nd out of all the teams in the area, which is no mean feat and we were pretty happy with that. Obviously with Amy and Clare both achieving double clears they took part in the individual jump off. It was very exciting with only 11 through to that stage of the competition but unfortunately it wasn’t to be their day.
The Style Jumping competition was interspersed between our two rounds. It is a competition where a judge assesses your round and completes a sheet giving you marks out of 10 for each jumping effort and your general riding ability. It certainly makes you think about your position, your approach to fences and your rhythm, let alone remembering the course! Studying the final scores it would be true to say that almost every other club had one very good rider scoring in the mid nineties and then 3 others who scored in the eighties or below. However it shows our clubs strength and depth in that we had scores in the nineties almost right across the board which was brilliant. Mel did particularly well, finishing joint 5th individually.
Late on in the afternoon Mel and Skye Blue started their Open S/J rounds. We had to admire their courage as the fences were enormous. However she and Skye looked wonderful jumping together – a really professional team. They were unlucky in the first round when the photographer moved abruptly and distracted Skye resulting in an uncharacteristic refusal and then on jumping into the double Mel’s leg brushed the wing. The second round (even higher) was also an 8 faulter but Mel went home very satisfied with Skye’s performance which is what we all aim for with our horses really, isn’t it. She certainly looked a star to me. Mel did admit to being a little nervous beforehand but so was I and I was only watching them!
Finally I would like to thank the very many supporters, both friends and family, who gave up their day for us, cheered us on, kept us cool with ice creams and cold drinks and generally helped us through that very hot day in July - we couldn’t have done it without you!
Angie Handley.
We have now completed all the various Dressage/Riding Test qualifiers for this year, so I can breathe a sigh of relief!
Grateful thanks to Pam Walker and Fiona Smith who introduced us, coached and cajoled us in to Dressage to Music. Seven members competed at the Area competition, which I think was a real achievement. Fingers crossed we can improve over the winter to get some placings next year?!
Unfortunately in both the Novice and Open dressage we were up against it, as we were short of people in both teams. This was a bit disappointing as we always have so many members competing in the members’ series, so there are a lot of you out there who should think about putting your names down for the teams next year. As only three scores out of four count, it is ideal just to come along and have a go. Transport can usually be sorted, so as the Winter Dressage will be the next competition please put your names forward – and enjoy the ride!!
Well done to our Riding Test team of Angie Handley, Natalie Neal, Karen Nunwick and Lisa Edmonds for achieving 3rd place. It was a fraught day with two lorries breaking down en route, plus a rather restricted warm-up area once we’d all arrived. But, a sunny day (always a bonus) and everyone smiling reflected the usual team spirit – though Angie’s smile was tested, with a bout of cramp at the most inopportune moment!
Well done and thanks to everyone, we had some good performances and hopefully have all gained some more happy memories and a bit more experience.
Sue Odom
This was on Saturday 5th July squeezed in between setting up our own Open Show on Friday and running it on Sunday and in spite of a really hectic weekend for some of us, we had a good number of members having a go at this discipline – some for the first time, I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. Well done to Lisa, who won the Novice 32 warm-up class, but unfortunately, this was not part of the area competition.
Huge thanks must go to Pam Walker for getting us all there in terms of arranging individual’s programmes, helping us with training/preparations and not least - being there on the day. We couldn’t have done it without you!
DTM Pairs: Fiona Smith & Abi Houghton (withdrew)
DTM Novice: Angie Handley, Lisa Edmonds, Natalie Neal, Jill Smith, Abi Houghton
DTM Elem: Fiona Smith, Sue Odom
Sue Odom
We had an excellent result for the juniors at the Area Horse Trials - Matthew Izod won his arena on a fantastic score of 28.6 penalties. Matthew will has qualified for the Horse Trials Championships as an individual at Offchurch Bury in August. A massive “Well Done and Good Luck” at the Championships.
Lisa Edmonds
WORC held their heads up high again this year, though unfortunately we didn’t qualify for the championships this year. The day was really good with plenty of team spirit and I would like to say thank you to all the competitors for their support to the club.
Karen Saunders
Image: Senior Horse Trials 2008
(Photo: Senior Novice Team – Amanda Atkinson, Mary Feilden, Angie Handley & Karen Saunders)
On 15th June WORC took part in the area Horse Trials at Broadway where we competed over the British Eventing course. The weather was kind to us on the day although the ground was rather on the firm side. There was a great team spirit within both our Novice and Intermediate teams and an equal amount of determination shown by our individual competitors as well, as the tremendous success of our Junior member, Matthew, demonstrates so well. We are so proud of you Matthew and, of course, wish you every success at Offchurch Bury in August at the Championships.
It was great to welcome Mary Feilden and her super horse, Marston Moonbeam, into Riding Club Area competitions. It was their first ODE but you wouldn’t have guessed it from their slick performance. Her team were placed 3rd which was a fantastic achievement and Mary is already planning on reaching the Champs next year. She obviously aims high and good for her!
It was the first year that we have entered a team in the Intermediate competition and the successful Hunter Trial team did it again, with a fantastic 3rd place against stiff opposition. So all in all, it was rather a special day for all of us who took part. It was also good to have Melaney Baker back competing for WORC again. It was a shame that we did not have enough people to make up a second team at the intermediate level but as an individual entry, Melanie and her lovely grey horse did so well.
Thank you so much WORC for entering us and paying our preliminary entry fees and thank you Karen for organising us, ferrying us to Broadway for our XC walk the day beforehand and for being such an encouraging team manager. Don’t know how you managed to compete as well!!!!
Angie Handley
Well done and thank you to all the juniors who took part in the Area style & show jumping and also a massive thank you to the parents for taking them. The juniors had mixed fortunes, however they are still a very young team and I am sure will become more established as the year goes on and will soon be a force to be reckoned with. Well done to Emily for volunteering just a week before the competition and jumping two very good clear rounds. The style jumping went well and the team were placed 6th. So well done to Jordon, Emily, Bryony, Jessica and Molly.
Lisa Edmonds
Good day, good course, bad weather! We had mixed fortunes - Simon, Maddie, Abi & Sue came fourth. Karen, Jill, Angie & Amanda were unplaced.
Congratulations to Matthew Izod & Archer on taking second place as Junior Individuals at the Area 18 Hunter Trials. The times were extremely close between first and second – we are still waiting to hear (with fingers crossed) to see if he has qualified for the Championships.
This new competition ran over two days, so it was therefore difficult to see many of our other members taking part. With over forty teams taking part, it was always going to be difficult to get into the placings let alone win!
Well done to Lisel Phillips and Boswell, making their team debut and who were a very creditable 2nd in their Prelim class. Likewise, Lisa Edmonds and Brief Encountre, also taking 2nd place despite the paparazzi slightly un-nerving him in the arena. Karen Nunwick and Rio were 6th, once again a very good performance and Sue Odom picked up 2 points for 6th place.
The teams came 9th and 12th overall, which was a good result given the number of competitors. Hopefully we can send more teams next year.
Barbara Edmonds
This year we didn’t have such an early start so we all got there around 10.30am, just in time to meet up and all walk the course together. Then it was off to get the horses ready - all looked very smart!
Louise King was the first to go for us at 12.24pm on Fred Astaire, they had a clear round, followed by Angie Handley with Our Martine and finally Amy Griffin who both went clear. So that meant their team went through to the next round with a zero total.
The second WORC team started with Amanda Atkinson on Witney Four Leaf Clover, they jumped well but finished on 4 faults. Karen Nunwick on Rio was unfortunately eliminated. Abby Houghton on Houndini’s Odyssey jumped well and finished clear. And finally Becky Cooper with Flicka finished with 8 faults, so a team total of 12 to carry through to the second round.
We took the horses back to the boxes so they could have some hay and relax before the next round. We had to wait approximately 3½ hours between rounds, but luckily it was a nice warm day for a change. Once the horses were tacked up again, Louise went back in for her second round and came out with 4 faults, Angie had another clear round and Amy had 4 faults, so the team total was 8 faults.
Amanda had 4 faults again, Karen improved on her first round with a respectable 4 faults (I was really pleased for her, as it was the first time she jumped for the club and it’s always nice to have new team members - ‘well done’ and hope to see you out with us again soon). Becky pulled out of the second round because she had been kicked in the face by a horse two weeks before and she was still very shaky. So with Abby also picking up 4 faults in the second round, this team ended up with 24 faults overall.
Angie had to jump off again because she had a double clear and she was just out of the places as were the teams. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves even though we were out of the ribbons this year. Many thanks to everyone who took part and also to those who came to watch.
Bev Townsend
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