A very warm welcome to Katie Fidgett who joined British Eventing earlier this year.
Katie rides Strawberry Cooley, a 14.2hh, 13-year-old Irish mare, owned by Harriet Poupart.
A double clear with just a few cross-country time penalties saw Katie finish 13th in her first ever one-day event at Munstead in the BE80 recently.
Katie said: “’Strawberry belongs to my best friend Harriet who has evented her over the last couple of seasons. I’ve never evented before, or in fact done much competing at all, so when Harriet asked if I’d like to event Strawberry this year, I jumped at the chance. We did some Arena Eventing and some show jumping over the winter, and Munstead was our first event.
“I was the first competitor of the day which was a bit daunting as I couldn’t watch anyone else go, but it meant I didn’t have time to worry. It was a nice atmosphere and very friendly and welcoming. I was very nervous, but once I was there, I was fine. I worried about remembering where I was going on the cross country, but it was a lovely course and flowed really well.
“My plans now are to do a couple of BE80s and then step up to BE90. Strawberry is small but very capable and can easily do BE90. It’s just about getting my confidence up. I feel very lucky to be in this position to have such a lovely pony to ride and get this experience on.”
If you’re interested in becoming a member of British Eventing, just go to our website where you can find information about which membership is right for you as well as details about our training, competition structure, Youth Programme and championships.
Also, if you are a member of the Pony Club or Riding Club, you can enjoy a 40% discount in your first two years of Intro membership if you haven’t been a member in the past three years!
For more information 
www.britisheventing.com
