Grange Farm Season finale

What a great competition to finish the 2008 JumpCross season at Grange Farm. 90 competitors took on the slightly altered course, with some old favourites being moved slightly to challenge horse and rider at the last competition of the year. Fence five seemed to cause the most trouble, positioned downhill and on a slight angle, if you didn’t get your approach just right you risked picking up penalties. As always the course at Grange Farm made full use of the terrain with fences cleverly positioned to ensure horse and rider were in balance and rhythm. Those riders, who rode too quickly, picked up penalties around the course for knock-downs. The riders who rode in a balanced, rhythm around the course were in the placings.

The Intro group has grown in numbers this season, with 30 riding this time. It has been great to see so many riders grow in confidence at this height at each of our six competitions this year and we hope that some of them will have the confidence to move up to Group 3, in 2009.

The top four placings in this group were pretty close. Lauren Dolby riding her chestnut mare, Red took fourth. Chloe Hutsby with Polly was third. Charlotte Pell riding Bobby’s Girl rode a clear round and jumped the joker to take second. Charlotte Taylor and Mossbrook Milly were just a little quicker to take first.

We had two Pony Club teams compete at Intro level. It was a head-to-head between the Burghley and the Fiztwilliam. Again, it has been great to see these young riders progress this season. It was a win this time for the Burghley Harriers (Bethany Fitt, Diana Bevan, Harriet Vickers and Isabel Henriques). The Fitzwilliam Flyers (Victoria Martin, Phoebe Benson, Lily Freeman and Philippa King) were second.

Onto Group 3, ten junior riders competed first. The top two riders in this group both jumped clear rounds and left the Joker standing, so it was down to their time taken to complete the course to decide who won the group. Brogan Cranfield and her new horse Lawson were second. Ella Garfoot riding Emoe took first.

Next, it was the Group 3 seniors. 20 riders took on the course; Susie Bliss riding Indiana rode a good round to take fourth. Sarah Wynn and Storm Child were third. Charlotte Pell carried on having a good day at JumpCross with a second in this group. Nikki Higgins and Black Sambuca rode a clear round and jumped the joker to take first.

It was another head-to-head battle between the Fitzwilliam and Burghley branches of the Pony Club as three teams competed over the Group 3 course. There were just five points separating first and second, the closest finish all season. The Fitzwilliam Fillies (Catriona Paterson, Ella Garfoot, Felicity Borrell and Hannah Rickett) were the winners. The Burghley Spitfires (Brogan Cranfield, Lauren Dolby, Alice Turner and Jake Webb) took second.

The final group of the day was Group 2, where the fences are set at 3’0-3’3. Ten riders competed in this group and the only clear round in this group was from Michelle Hitt and Rhapsody, they also cleared the joker to put them in first place. Rachel Finch and Monster took second. Vanessa Lowther riding Just Guest House were third.

The Grange Farm JumpCross League
This final competition of the year, also decided the placings for the Grange Farm JumpCross league. Points have been awarded to the top 10 horse and rider combinations in the individual competition groups at each of our competitions this year. The league winners were decided once the results from our final competition had been added to their scores from the last five competitions.

Mountain Horse, very kindly supplied the prizes to the top three in each Group. Mountain Horse are well known in the horse world for their range of riding wear, from jackets, fleeces, breeches, footwear to gloves and hats. All designed to be practical yet fashionable.

It has been a close competition all season and it was down to the placings at the October competition that decided who were the winners. In the Intro it has been a battle between two riders who would win the league. Rebecca Woolley riding Poppy and Harvey didn’t have the best of competitions, which left it for Chloe Hutsby riding Polly and Dun to Order to take first and second. Rebecca was third on Harvey. Charlotte Pell who was second in the Intro competition moved up to forth place in the league.

In the Group 3 senior league the final placings were even closer. Sally Wagstaff, who wasn’t competing this time had to settle for second place in the league when Nikki Higgins won the Group competition and also won the league by one point. The consistent combination of Sarah Wynn and Storm Child were third.

The Junior Group 3 league was also won by one point. Catriona Paterson retained her lead and Ella Garfoot, despite winning the Group competition had to settle for second place. In third place was Lisa Reid riding star.

There was a clear league winner in Group 2. Sally Wagstaff and Gulliver won by 16 points! Caroline Witham-Grange and Abija took second and Michelle Hitt riding Rhapsody were third.

The 2008 JumpCross season at Grange Farm has been a great success, and we hope to build on this with an exciting schedule of events planned for 2009.

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