With just a few weeks to go until the NAF Five Star BE80 Championships at Bramham International Horse Trials, we caught up with intrepid qualified riders to find out how they are preparing for this year’s event.

Hayley Norgrove and her nine-year-old Irish Draft mare Mountain Molly have qualified for the NAF 5* BE80 Championships at Bramham International Horse Trials in June. With just a few weeks to go, Hayley tells us what she has been up to in preparation for the championship.

“I have owned Molly three years and always dreamed of eventing. Last season we made our British Eventing debut together and had the time of our lives. We very quickly set our goals and sights on the BE80 Championships at Bramham, and set out on a mission to qualify, which we did at Chillington Hall in September.

“Molly is an awesome horse cross-country, but being a full Irish Draft, I have had to work hard on her fitness. Winter training was going well until we had an awful blow in January where my 16-year-old son was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma. He has been undergoing a gruelling chemotherapy regime which has taken precedent over everything else.

I am lucky that Molly is fit and well, and I have excellent support around me to help keep her ticking over, and I have been grabbing opportunities to go show jumping around my son’s treatment. He finishes chemotherapy in May allowing me to set my sights on Bramham.

“We are lucky that we have some excellent hacking and lots of long cantering on Hanway Common, so I know Molly will be fit and raring to go!”

More information about the Championship can be found here –  https://www.britisheventing.com/compete/championships/be80-championship