My thanks to Claire Fry who has kindly submitted the following report and photograph:
I don’t think anyone could quite believe Chloe and Big Dan went and won the Novice Area Show Jumping again, especially ME (Mum) !!! The first thing I knew about it was when Sarah shouted ” S*** we’re off to Cheshire again!!! “.
After a very exciting start to the day with all the novice team (Chloe Fry, Abi Martin and Francesca Oliver) jumping clear in the first round, the weather turned for the worst and in the 2nd round Chloe jumped clear and Abi and Francesca unfortunately ended with faults. So by the end of a long day Chloe had won the Novice and Lara Curtis and Duke had come 6th in the Intermediate and was just outside the qualifiers for the championships.
Then we were off to the Novice Area Eventing where the two novice teams who consisted of Chloe Fry, Jo Mitchell, William Heagerty, Alex Irwin and Olivia Greenwood, Hamish Heagerty, Abi Martin and Annabel Irwin did very respectably but unfortunate not gaining a place at the championships except Alex Irwin and Percy who won their arena and Chloe Fry and Big Dan coming 6th in their arena who did not quite qualifier.
The great news was we had two going to the Championships and Jo Mitchell, who had won her arena at the Area Dressage, but could not make the Championships.
On Friday 26th August Alex came over to ours and Chloe and Alex rode Danny and Percy over to Sarah Muggeridge’s to stretch the ponies legs before we loaded them for the long journey to Cheshire (and it was long, nearly 8 hours after we got stopped on the M25 for two and half hours; that’s 8 hours of listening to 3 teenage girls laughing and singing etc. and of course Sarah who made everyone laugh with her eventing stories !!!!). The girls put the ponies in their stables and Sarah, Fiona and I cooked dinner and told the girls to GO TO BED.
Next morning Chloe and Sarah walked the first round of the Show Jumping whilest Alex and Beth groomed and got Danny ready. I couldn’t watch like I normally do but was very pleased to hear they jumped clear just getting 2 time faults which Chloe was disappointed about but soon realised how well Dan had actually jumped.
Then for the 2nd round (I couldn’t watch again as it was too big and no way I would have jumped it!). Chloe’s Dad thought I was silly not to watch so he went with Beth, Alex and Sarah. They jumped the best round ever so I hear and went clear without any time faults. So althourgh they did not go into the jump off, as there was 10 double clears without time faults, Chloe has finished her time with Big Dan with a double clear at the Championships which can’t be bad.
Alex and Percy had their Dressage Saturday afternoon so it was Chloe’s turn to groom for her with the help of Beth again.
They did a very respectable test so we finished the day in good spirits.
Sunday was a very wet day and poor Alex and Percy had to show jump in the worst rain I’ve ever seen and unfortunately Percy slipped into a big parallel and Alex fell off. We were all very disappointed as this meant they could not go cross country under the Eventing rules. I would like to say how proud I am of Alex as before long she and the others girls were laughing and joking again (and All The Way Home !!!!)
It was a great experience for all of us which we all enjoyed. Also big thanks to Beth Giddings who groomed for the girls all weekend and Sarah Muggeridge who came with us because there was no way I could have helped the girls with their riding.
Claire