A beautiful day welcomed riders and plentiful crowds to the Nottinghamshire venue of Osberton yesterday (Saturday) for the conclusion of the international CCI3*-S and CCI2*-S classes.
CCI3*-S
Team Joey owned Jaeger Master, expertly ridden by Tom Woodward, took the win in the CCI3*-S. The cross-country proved influential, with Tom completing in 6.16 minutes, matched by second place Phoebe Locke and followed closely behind Georgie Campbell in 6.25 minutes who took third place.
Reflecting on their round, winner Tom, embellished with a navy sash remarked “[He was] brilliant, he went brilliantly at Thoresby, and then I actually fell off him at Burnham [so] we wanted to give him a nice confidence run before he heads to Chatsworth and he’s been fantastic. He’s a funny horse, he’s been very lively all week and quite a lot of work being a bit tricky to handle as he sometimes can be. But he’s gone and done his job, so it’s brilliant.”
Tom thoroughly enjoyed his winning bottle of champagne by spraying it over Phoebe and Georgie. He said, “I’ve never been given a bottle of champagne to spray so I thought I may as well make the most of it!”
Phoebe Locke navigated Renkum Jitterbug to second place. “I’m really happy with him”, commented Phoebe, “and jumping double clear, I don’t think there were many. He’s still relatively inexperienced to be doing 3* and I was really happy with such a big section to come away second.”
Completing the podium placings was fellow British rider Georgie Campbell who piloted Mr and Mrs Morrish’s horse Global Quest to third. Georgie said: “He was good, and he did a lovely test. He can get a little bit tense and hot in his tests, but he stayed very relaxed and really rideable. He started getting a bit excited in the [showjumping] warm-up but he actually held it together and did a lovely round and then just skipped around the cross country to give me an amazing ride. The ground held up really well, I couldn’t have asked him to go better really.”
Georgie has exciting plans for the future with Global Quest: “He is going to do the 4* short at Bicton and then if I’m feeling brave, we’ll take him to Luhmuhlen for the 5* which would be really cool, obviously a bit of a way to go yet but that’s the aim.”
Anna Price was the highest placed British Eventing youth rider, finishing in a commendable 10th place riding her own Keep Happy.
CCI2*-S
Success in the afternoon’s in the CCI2*-S went to 17-Year-Old Araminta Spencer- Churchill who lead from the start with her impressive dressage score of 26.7 riding her own Neds Legacy. Adorned with her winner’s sash she commented: “She’s a tough Irish little 15.2hh power house and just tries for me all the time. She’d only really team chased and hunted in her previous home when we got her as a six-year-old, and thought she was hunting the first few times we took her out eventing! Dressage was a bit of a shock to her!
“At Osberton she nailed the dressage test and really listened to me. She loves her jumping which showed at Osberton. In the cross-country, she finds it all so easy and really galloped in the areas I asked – when I looked down at my watch coming through the flags I couldn’t believe she was a whole 8 seconds inside the time! She felt fab that whole week and thats a big thank you to the amazing team at home and trainers.”
The future looks bright for Araminta who will aim for the 2* Juniors.
Following the impressive young rider was Tom McEwen in second place riding Mrs Deirdre Johnston and Mrs Jane Knight’s, Quintus. Tom, pleased with his horse’s performance said: “Quintus was amazing. [He] cruised round inside the time, which was lovely, he’s a big horse, [and] ate up the ground really well.”
Tom sung the praises of the grounds team saying “the ground been terrific” and “the sunken road was really nice, there was a few different fences, I just really liked the build-up, I actually thought the water was quite decent with the tall-ish rail going in and then coming out.”
Emily Worsdale successfully steered Kate Sanderson’s Landsbrook Faerie Tale into third place and said “I was really pleased with how she went round the course. The ground has worked well, she’s a cracking pony. She just sailed straight through it [the cross country] and she rode really well. I’m lucky enough to have the pony for this season while her owner is travelling.”
Project Pony CCIP2*-S
Saving some of the best action until the end of the day, the Project Pony sponsored CCIP2*-S, rounded out the international action at the Spring Osberton International.
Ellen Butler took the win with her own Rock Tempo, adding just 0.4 cross-country time faults to her dressage score of 30.9.
Speaking of the win Ellen said: “It was amazing, I was so happy with him because it sort of all came together today through the three phases. My favourite fence was the Irish bank because it was a really fun fence to ride and it rode much better than I thought it would. I loved the brush afterwards as well because it just was really fun.”
As the dressage leader, Annabel Ridgway and the Project Pony owned Akim De L’Arquerie had to settle for second place this weekend with a rolled pole in the showjumping.
“It was really good, Otto was amazing, he flew round all of the combinations so yeah I was really chuffed. He belongs to Project Pony, they support young riders and they invite you to training sessions and if they think you’ve got what it takes they invite you to go and try some ponies and I ended up with Otto. He’s on loan to me and he’s amazing. My favourite fence was probably the Irish bank, I’ve never done one of those before so it was really fun to have a go at tackling it.”
Completing the podium placings was Arabella Henderson and her own Our Billy Eile, who produced a quick double clear to complete on 36.3.
“It went really well, Mable was amazing. She gave me such a confident, nice feeling all the way round. She was amazing in the showjumping, and in the cross country. Everyone was so lovely, and we had a great time.”
British Eventing Youth Selector Coach Jon Collins said: “Huge thanks to Beau Wood and Stuart Buntine for providing educational show jumping and cross-country courses respectively, giving valuable preparation for the upcoming CCI Long competitions at Belsay and Bicton for all three Youth Performance levels.”
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