Longines Royal International Horse Show 2015

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Localrider Magazine

PONY CLUB • RIDING CLUB • EVENTING • DRESSAGE www.localrider.co.uk

£3.00

September 2015

Over 30 pages of Show Reports including: September 2015 • VOLUME XV NUMBER 8

● Hickstead Royal International

09

● BEF Futurity ● Gorley Vale ● Redhorse Dressage Plus lots, lots more!

www.localrider.co.ukJune

Lots of fantastic Giveaways to be won

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HICKSTEAD ROYAL INTERNATIONAL REPORT Time 2 Reflect looking every bit the Supreme Champion she is, after winning the British Horse Society Supreme Ridden Championship with Jayne Ross.

Longines Royal International Horse Show The All England Showground, Hickstead Tuesday 28th July to Sunday 2nd August Words by Julia Longland and pictures by Fiona Rafferty

J

ayne Ross and the winning Lightweight in the Hunter division Dianne Stennett’s Time 2 Reflect, who went on to take the Hunter Championship, claimed the Winston Churchill Trophy as the British Horse Society Supreme Ridden Horse in spectacular style, after a tense battle with the Hack champions Jordan Cook on Fleetwater Xecutive. Both horses earned 27 out of a possible 30 marks from the supreme judges, Nick Brooks-Ward, Brian Williams and Margaret Shaw. Time 2 Reflect extended into a thundering gallop in a full lap of the Hickstead main arena, but when Jayne dropped her reins at the end of their stretch out, the mare stood like a statue with ears pricked. Bred by the late John Rawding, the eight-year-old Time 2 Reflect was a winner in-hand, moved up to small hunters and then to the lightweight division.

Starry Night dazzles the Judges

Earlier in the week Jayne Ross and the Lightweight Hunter, Time 2 Reflect, had claimed the Les & Nadia Edgar Supreme Hunter Championship, seen here with Les and Nadia.

Twenty two cobs came forward for the Leeman Family maxi cob championship in Ring 3 and the two expected to battle it out were Camilla Neame-Sheehan’s Starry Night, ridden by Robert Walker, and Heather Clay’s Hallmark ridden by Simon Reynolds. Experts thronged the ringside as these two giants of the show ring headed the line-up. Ride judge Loraine Homer rode every horse, while her father, David Tatlow, a former supreme showman, scrutinised the confirmation of all the candidates, and at the end of his assessment Starry Night took the honours over defending champion Hallmark IX . “I am very particular about the walk,” commented Tatlow, “it is a pace often overlooked. When the cobs came in to the ring, we watched them carefully and decided the eventual winner looked more relaxed, he was very calm and correct. My co-judge said both horses rode very well, but confirmation is also very important and the winner had more bone. I think people will talk about these two horses for a long time.” Robert Walker said of Starry Night (known as Basil to his friends): “The heat made him puff before the class, but as soon as he went in, he put on his game face.” Starry Night

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ines, presents the King George V Katrina Jones, Brand Manager for Long C for the second consecutive year. s Corte and en Madd Gold Cup to Beezie

19-year-old Jessica Mendoza looked impressive with Spirit T jumping in the King George V Gold Cup.

Left to right: Alan Taylor, Charlie Bunn, Julia Caffyn, Master of the Southdown & Eridge, with Oliver Hills, Master& Huntsman of the Southdown & Eridge. The hunt led the champion hunters on their lap of honour.

was found in Ireland by Camilla Neame-Sheehan’s husband, Val, a man from Cork. The Neame-Sheehans have a yard at Bishopsbourne, south of Canterbury, and joined the Mastership of the East Kent with West Street Hunt last May.

Beezie Madden, the double Olympic team gold medallist from the United States, wrote a new chapter in the Hickstead annals at the Longines Royal International Horse Show when she landed back-toback victories on Cortes C in the Longines King George V Gold Cup, one of the world’s most prestigious prizes but open to men only for nearly a century after it started in 1911. Under new conditions in 2008 both the King’s Cup and the Queen Elizabeth II Cup, originally for ladies only, were opened to both sexes. Last year Madden was the first lady to claim the historic trophy and by completing two in a row, became the first rider to do so since the legendary Italian Piero d’Inzeo on The Rock in 1961 and 1962. “I’m happy to break records,” she said, “I didn’t think I could do it twice but Cortes C was fantastic, he is so naturally fast.” Madden, 52, who won team gold at Athens in 2004 and Hong Kong in 2008, challenged second of six finallists on her 13-year-old Dutch gelding in the dramatic jump-off and rode a brave, galloping attack over the shortened course in 43.06 seconds, just 0.36 seconds too good for runner-up Penelope Leprevost of France. The two best British performers in the King’s Cup field were 19-year-old Jessica Mendoza, fourth on Spirit T and William Whitaker, 26, fifth on Fandango. Both produced outstanding performances over Kelvin Bywater’s supremely testing 12 fence course in which over half the 42 starters faulted at the double of white railway gates, a traditional part of the King’s Cup course for over 65 years, approached on a left turn 8 strides or even a long 7 after the open water jump. “My dad was more nervous than I was,” Jessica said after the King’s Cup. “He kept saying how prestigious this was.”

Andrew Nicholson and Cillnabradden Evo didn’t waste a second to win the Amlin Plus Eventers Challenge. Andrew had a bad fall with this horse at Gatcombe the following weekend. He has surgery on his neck and has a good prognosis. We send him our best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Beezie does the Double

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