Wellington Showjumping

The final fixture of the term for King's Schools' Equestrian Team ended on a high! On Sunday 15th November four riders from King's concluded their successful season with a great day at Wellington School's annual Showjumping event at Heazle Arena.

In this event all team riders must complete two rounds. The first round is effectively a warm-up, but this can produce team faults that carry over to the important second round. With the best three scores counting, we progressed  to round two with a very pleasing zero score.

The course had changed, fence heights increased and it was against the clock! Now tactics are important - do we go for it but risk knocking fences and try for a very fast time, or play it positive but go clear? All four of our riders rode clear and calculated rounds against the clock, to put us in a strong position. Only Taunton School, Blundell's and King's from the original 11 teams that started the class finished with a team double-clear. It was now down to which team had the fastest time.

Taunton School's team had put in three blistering rounds that gained them first place overall with King's taking second, ahead of Blundell's. Lydia Gray and Tarn McIntosh from King's College and India and Tom Knott from King's Hall School rode brilliantly, and they thoroughly deserved this result. All our riders compete in a variety of different disciplines, and the fact they can achieve success in all of them is wonderful! Well done!

Planned for the spring are cross-country clinics with Olympic event riders Mary King and Lucinda Green, as well as showjumping classes with world championship rider Kelly Brown and UKCC coach Harriet Martin.