Another of our talented branch members has held the branch flag high in the national Pony Club Championships in Derbyshire. Lizzie Tillard came 2nd in her arena in the Open Eventing competition! This is a terrific result; no other rider from Area 11 was placed in the the open competition and Lizzie is therefore ranked within the top ten Pony Club eventers in the country.
Click here for full results.
Lizzie has kindly submitted the following report:
Having been lucky enough to gain a place at the National Pony Club Open Eventing Championships I headed up to Derbyshire on the 14th August. We arrived amongst many others and I immediately set out with John Bedford to walk a very technical XC course which later proved to cause a few problems for some. Rising early next day I was pleased to see I wasn’t the only one feeding my horse in pyjamas and sooner or later it was time for the dressage! Twiggy did a lovely test and we finished on a score of 30.0 penalties. I then went on to pick up a unfortunate 8 penalties in the SJ having knocked a couple of poles down but compared to our SJ round at Area this was certainly an improvement! Finally we moved on to the XC, and having shaken off the butterflies and run over what line I was to take at each fence about ten times I set off. With mum on the timer we weren’t hanging around as we began to tackle the course. The XC course included several offset corners and lots of skinnies but Twiggy took them all in her stride and flew round the course, coming through the finish with only 1.6 time penalties and a fantastic clear. I gained a very rewarding 2nd Place as many others also struggled to get a clear round SJ and luckily a good dressage meant I could just afford those SJ penalties. I was so pleased as Twiggy really jumped her heart out and we both worked so hard for a place.
I would like to thank Louise Lewis for organising all the Level 5 Eventing throughout the season but most importantly I want to thank John Bedford as without his teaching and advice I couldn’t have done it alone. He has been there to help at not only the Open Champs but at the Novice and Intermediate and I think I can say on behalf of Amy Dunn and Hazel Perry he has been great at getting us all the way to the top of the pony club and making us a strong team of three. I was lucky enough to have John to walk the courses with, otherwise who knows what line I would have taken through some of those combinations!! Furthermore John even managed to give me a well needed SJ lesson before the Champs whilst also running Junior Camp. He has been a great instructor understanding both Twiggy and me making it possible for us to achieve so much whilst maintaining his good humour which never fails to amuse us all! And finally a big thank you to mum for all her help as well and keeping us all fed and in good spirits!
Lizzie Tillard