Mid Sussex Riding Club won the British Riding Club National Senior Horse Trials Team Championship at Washbrook Farm Ashton le Walls on Sunday 9th August 2009.
The team was made up of Di Grinyer riding Perfect Scoundrel (Jazz), Phili Pickard riding Spencer, Anne Greenwood riding Rothko and Julie Luckin riding Cassie Kara. The team had qualified by winning the Area 13 qualifier at Rackham in June. This was the first horse trials team we had managed to get together for several years due to a shortage of horses and riders who were interested and capable of competing at that level.

However we nearly did not even make the qualifier as our team of 4 went to down to 2 when I was injured, which meant that Jac had not done enough work to compete and Cassie went lame just before the event. Luckily Anne & Rothko saved the team at the 12th hour by agreeing to ride at the area qualifier. This was brilliant because they started competing in ODE’s late last year and Ann was working exceeding long hours at the South of England show the 3 days before the qualifier! The area qualifier was also Phili & Spencers first one day event so it really was a novice team! The course at Rackham was brand new and right up to size so we were all delighted when our team of 3 instead of 4 won and in doing so qualified for the British Riding Club National Championships!!

Luckily by the time of the Nationals Cassie was sound, so we had a full team and a fit reserve horse & rider!

The BRC National championship is run as a 2 day event with Dressage and Show Jumping on day 1 and a 4 phase cross country section made up of roads & tracks, steeplechase, and cross country course on day 2. There were 30 other riding clubs in the Senior Novice team competition all of who had qualified by winning their area qualifiers so it was a stiff competition!!

When we arrived at Aston le Walls on Friday afternoon we were greeted by a quagmire, as it had rained heavily for over 13 hours and the lorry park, stabling, arenas and cross country course were all water logged! The lorry park looked like a scene from a disastrous horsey Glastonbury there were 100’s of horse boxes stuck in what resembled a mud lake! So having spent over 5 hours getting there (due to traffic on M25 &M40), and 2 ½ hrs waiting for a tractor to tow my lorry carrying Rothko out of the mud it looked for a short while that it was going to be disaster.

However on Saturday the sun shone and the ground started to dry out. The 9am competition briefing explained that the competition would run (they had abandoned the cross country the day before for the juniors) but without phase B - the steeplechase and phase C one of the roads and tracks. They also were waiting until later in the day to make the final decision regarding which fences were in for the cross country course. The first day of competition went well with good dressage scores from all of them and 3 clear rounds and 1 round with 4 faults. So when we looked at the scores at the end of the day it looked like we would be placed which was a great place to be.

Saturday night was spent walking phase A (roads & tracks 3030m) and Phase D – the cross country course (2055m) and trying to work out the timing, because in this competition there is an optimum time for each phase and you get time penalties if you are too fast as well as too slow. Needless to say this was all completely new to Phili, Anne & Julie who had never done this before. Di had minimum experience because the last time she and Jazz competed at a horse trials was 4 years ago when they represented the club as an individual at the same event (this was also the last time Di & Jazz had completed a cross country course!). Anyway there was much deliberation and calculation for Phase A, with contingency plans such as if I get to .the 1st marker in 4 minutes, that means I need to do the next one in 6 mins etc

I think it was safe to say that the timing of the roads and tracks was the primary concern for the whole team.

We all awoke Sunday to another sunny day, and happy and relaxed in the knowledge that we were probably in the top 6 places (it was too complicated to work it out accurately ourselves!!) This happiness was soon replaced by disbelief and mild hysteria when the results were put on which showed that MSRC were in the lead by 2.3 penalties! This equates to 2 secs over the time on phase A and 1 sec on the cross country course. To retain our lead we needed everyone to go clear and be inside the time! This was going to be tough, roads and track times were reworked, rechecked, written down and stuck to their arms, stop watches checked and double checked.

Di and Jazz were our trial blazers and they timed it to perfection and went clear cross country. Phili went next and again was clear cross country but had picked up 4 time penalties on phase A. Just before Anne & Rothko set off, more pressure was added when Cassie got frightened and cut her leg just above and behind her knee. It was one of those horrid injuries that we all hate because of where it was, and it was more than a scrape –as a good layer skin had been removed!! Luckily there was a vet on site who checked her over and said she was safe to go but that she would need to be stapled straight after the XC course. Meanwhile Anne & Rothko were on the course having made phase A look easy. Rothko is the youngest and least experienced horse in the team, and he jumped brilliantly all the way. However ¾ of way round the course he got confused because he mistakenly thought he had to jump into the water so had a little stop to assess the situation before setting off again! Last to go was Julie and Cassie, the pressure was back on because we had heard that Stoneleigh & Ardingly who were 2nd & 3rd behind us had also picked up some penalties but none of knew how many. To be safe Julie needed to be clear and inside the time. As Julie was finishing the roads and tracks we were at fever pitch because we could see that she was really close to the time, after her vet check she revealed that somehow she missed starting her watch so she did remarkably well to complete phase A with 1 second over and no watch!!
All our hearts were in our mouths as they set off on the cross country course, and we were all over the moon when they got home safe and clear, but were outside the time.

Just as we were all walking Cassie and Julie back to the lorry the commentator said that although it was still to be confirmed it looked like Mid Sussex Riding Club had retained their overnight lead!! The rest of the story is history, while the scorers were confirming the scores, Cassie was being sedated and stapled. Finally we got confirmation that we had won by 3.1 penalty points!! Talk about close! On top of winning the team championship it was even more special because Di & Jazz has also won their arena!

The next hurdle was there was a proper mounted prize giving with reporters and photographers from Horse and Hound and Riding magazine, so the white MSRC saddle clothes were dragged out of the dirty washing pile, all the horses had a very quick spit & polish, best dressage kit was found and somehow we got there spruced up and clean so that they all looked fab in the photos. Even Cassie was allowed to attend on foot (although Julie was allowed to sit on her for the photos), though she was wearing a very nice black vet wrap over her pink strapped up leg.

This really was a team event because everyone involved pulled together to get the show on the road, and as a result we had a fantastic weekend. The crew behind the scenes were Terri, Emma, Martin, Steve, Sam, Dawn & myself, and everyone played a vital role, not least Steve because he fed us all with his blinding BBQ’s and was the team timer, managing to time all of them when they started both phases so we all knew where we had to scream encouragement to get them home!

Next stop for this team is the London & SE Championships at Munsted on September 27th . Anyone who fancies helping out at this or coming to support is more than welcome! Contact Anna Sampson for details.