LDRC National Champions

Ludlow RC National Champions!!

On the 4th September Ludlow and District Riding Club returned as CHAMPIONS from the British Riding Clubs National Championships at Lincoln Showground. We competed in the 80 cm show jumping team and the Elementary dressage. Lou Burns started the day with a fabulous test in the Elementary 40 class. Travelling 7 hour round trip for a 4 minute dressage test seems kind of crazy, but Lou also had 2 of the show jumping team on board which made it more viable. Her test was rewarded with a well deserved 7th place individually. The show jumping team consisted of Natalie Caning, Angie Moss, Duncan Hill and Georgia Woods. The courses were in two different rings over two rounds with the second part of round two acting as a jump off phase. Each of the rings had a variety of jumps, lots of colour and flower pots.

The first round was inviting and rode well with all 4 of us going clear. The second round was more challenging. The jump off had lots of tight turns and a gallop to the last upright which caught a lot of people out. Natalie was first to go and did a great round, going clear despite a heart stopping moment into the double where Albert wasn’t quite sure he was supposed to jump it! Angie was next riding Derek, Lou Killey’s horse. Angie had only ridden him a handful of times but did a super job, just having the first fence down, but crucially going clear in the jump off phase to finish on 4 faults. Duncan had strict team instructions to ‘just go clear’ which he did! Georgia was the last to go, doing a clear round in the first part and just having 2 down in the jump off phase. The rest of the team could hardly watch, but Georgia and Willie handled the pressure. It’s definitely more nerve wracking watching than riding!

It was hard to work out during the day how we were doing and the live scoring wasn’t live so we were hoping to maybe get a rosette, but when we checked the score board it was a shock to discover we had WON!! We finished on a score of ‘0’, taking Georgia’s clear in the first part of round 2 and Angie’s clear in the jump off. In the jump off part when all the times were added together we were on top out of 21 teams!!!

Natalie and Duncan were also placed individually, Natalie 6th and Duncan 10th out of 103 riders. We learnt that secretly we are all quite competitive, but actually being part of a team, sharing in the delight of each other’s success, staying to support one another and having the help of friends and family was just as important as being placed. The best bit of the whole day was the prize giving. We got rugs! Natalie’s Albert is scared of most things but there was no way he was getting out of having a sash and rug put on him! We did two laps of honour with music playing, lots of photos and two trot passes of the BRC banners while official photographers clicked away. We also won a silver salve, NAF vouchers and rosettes and were interviewed for the Riding Club Magazine so keep a watch out for that. We kept the rugs and sashes on as we rode back to the lorry and everyone we met along the way was so kind and happy for us. It was an amazing end to a very, very long day….