Fresh from his Nations Cup placing at Chatsworth where he was third individually and part of the second-placed British team, David Doel pulled off a stellar double clear to finish on his dressage of 29 to land the The Howden Way supported Tweseldown six-year-old class riding I Am Mayfield Z.
“He was mega and I was really chuffed with him,” said David of the gelding by I am London Apple out of Isla Bonita who he has owned since a four-year-old. “It was only his second novice. He did a lovely test for him – we’ve been working on getting bigger differences between his medium trot and canter strides and that paid off. He was a little bit lucky in the show jumping as he had a few rubs, but he was mega cross-country. They’d built a really strong track.”
David’s wife Charlotte produces the young horses before passing them back to David.
“Charlotte took him to the Burghley Young Event Horse finals last year,” he said. “He’s very chilled and can be a little bit too laid back at times, but he’s very talented and is going to be quite special.”
Kitty King filled second and third place with Katango on 29.5 and MBF Redhouse Evoque on 30 respectively.
The Young Horse classes take place throughout the spring and summer in some of BE’s most stunning venues, including the Belsay estate in Northumberland and Rockingham Castle in Northamptonshire. The six-year-old classes will be run at novice level, while the seven-year-old classes will be run at intermediate level.
The top three in each class receive an additional £250, £150, £100 respectively on top of the prize money already generated and awarded by the prize money calculator.
For dates of the young horse classes this year, please click here
Alongside these classes, the performance of young horses competing with British Eventing is acknowledged within The Howden Way Young Horse Leagues which can be found here. There are four leagues which cover the ages of five years, six years, seven years and then the ages of eight & nine combined. The leagues display the average of a horse’s three best finishing scores via a Power Based Average score which highlights the ability to repeatedly finish on a low score.
The 2023 Young Horse Championships take place at Cornbury House Horse Trials in Oxfordshire between 7-10 September. The classes will also benefit those aiming their young horses at the FEI World Breeding Championships at Le Lion d’Angers, which hosts a CCI2*-L World Championship for six-year-olds and a CCI3*-L World Championship for seven-year-olds.
Image courtesy of Spidge Event Photography
