Great end of season competition at Grange Farm

What a day! Fantastic weather and over 100 competitors made the last JumpCross competition of 2007 at Grange Farm a true season finale and the decider for the JumpCross league that has been running all season

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The course remained unchanged from the last competition in September but still caused plenty of problems spread throughout the 18 fence course. Twenty five competitors came forward for the INTRO competition. With fences set at 2’3-2’6, it is a perfect introduction to this sport and excellent for giving confidence for young horses or inexperienced riders. It was great to see some new competitors taking on the course for the first time but the top two placings went to JumpCross regulars, Rachel Maciag and Maisy, based at Grange Farm came second, jumping a great clear round until deciding to take on the joker and knocking it to add 40 penalities to their score. This meant Teresa Stoner and Poirot’s Quest took first place. Two Pony Club members took the next two places Chloe Hutsby was third with Polly from the Cottesmore Pony Club and Phoebe Benson with Mr Inc in forth from the Fitzwilliam Pony Club.

It was good to see four Pony Club teams compete at INTRO level. It was a Burghley Pony Club 1 and 2 with the Burghley Mosquitos, (Bethany Fitt, Tamara Kloist, Blyth Cranfield and Greta Mason) claiming top place with the all boys team, Burghley Gladiators (Jake Webb, George Andrew and Silas Mason) taking second. The Fitwilliam Otters came a close third (Hannah Smart, Lily Freeman and Victoria Martin)

Six teams came forward for the Group 3 competition. Charlotte Adams and Indie rode a fantastic clear round and jumped the joker successfully to put the Manic Mares in first place after all the ‘A’ riders had been. In close second was the Wishful Thinkers after Emma Harrison and her coloured cob Scrumpy Jack just rolled one pole to add 20 penalties to their score. It was all down to the second riders to decide who would win. The final scores could not have been closer. Neither Vanessa Lowther for the Manic Mares or Cate Croll for the Wishful Thinkers took on the joker to try and lower their team totals. It was down to 10ths of seconds to decide the winners - the Manic Mares took first place with the Wishful Thinkers just missing out on the top spot to come second and The Hennie Pennies (Pam Sellers and Fiona Edmunds) were third.

In the senior Group 3 competition Jennifer Wheeler and Sambu were first, jumping a clear round and clearing the joker. Teresa Stoner completed a good day out with a second place in this group. Lauren Dolby and Red were third.

Next, was the Junior Group 3 Oliver Meikle was first, Ellie Lloyd second and Tanya Puk came third.

On to the Pony Club team competition, where four teams took on the JumpCross course, with the best three scores from each team to count. The final scores were all pretty close but the experienced team of four, the Burghley Hurricanes (Oliver Meikle, Emily Lumb, Charlotte Adams and Lauren Dolby) were the winners. The Burghley Spitfires (Lisa Reid, Lauren Dolby, Brogan Cranfield and Beth Ward) were second and the Fitzwilliam Hares (Catriona Paterson, Chrissie Sanders, Charlotte Darlow and Amy Wells) came third.

The final competition of the day, the Group 2 Senior, six competitors took on the challenge, with the fences now at approximately 3’3. Only two took on the joker successfully – Danielle Jackson with Rookie and Sally Wagstaff with Gulliver. And it was these two combinations that claimed the two top placings. Again the scores were very close with Danielle taking first place and Sally in second.

It has been a great JumpCross season at Grange Farm and we are planning a few more competitions for 2008, these will be posted on the website shortly.

We would like to thank everyone for supporting the competitions including all the fence judges and other volunteers who give up their time to help these competitions run so smoothly. Also a big thank you to Mountain Horse for providing such great prizes for the Grange Farm League winners.

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