SSRC Area 18 horse trials team result Our Novice team of Rebecca Hall, Louise Killey, Jo Tarling and Bonnie Fishburn finished 9th overall, with Bonnie and Jo each being 4th individually in their sections. Bonnie Fishburns mixed Area 18 team finished 5th in the Open section.

Novice event team success Our novice event team have qualified for the Area Horse Trials Championships at Aston le Walls in August, after finishing in 2nd place.The team consisted of Jo Tarling, Louise Killey, Bonnie Fishburn and Louise Esson (see picture below) Rebecca Hall competed as an individual and was placed 3rd in her class. Bonnie Fishburn also competed in the open class and was placed 5th.

Success at the Area Indoor Show Jumping Championships The SSRC show jumping team went down to Hartpury for the Area Indoor Winter Championships where they finshed a very creditable 9th from 27 teams. Teams had travelled from all over the UK to take part in this championship. Our team consisted of Jodene Tarling, Clare Ratcliff, Bonnie Fishburn and Louise Killey. Two rounds each were jumped with Jodene jumping clear but accummulating 2 time penalties, Clare had 8 faults, Bonnie had 12 faults and Louise had 4 faults. As this was purely a team competition, there were no individual placings. A great result for all four ladies and for our riding club.

Success for Tracy Moseley at the Pet Plan Area Festival Tracy Moseley won the Pet Plan Area Festival 2010 Prelim Championship at Pencoed College, South Wales on 1st October with an extremely high score of 74.09%, at only her second affiliated show.  This qualifies her for the Pet Plan National Finals to be held at Hartpury College, Gloucestershire in April 2011.    Tracy also qualified for the Novice Music Freestyle Restricted Regional Championships with over 70% in September, at her first affiliated show.   Tracy has worked very hard over the past three years to produce her TBX Welsh mare as a quality all rounder, and hunts, shows, events and show-jumps, as well as having won the Cricklands Winter UK Unaffiliated Dressage Prelim Gold Medal earlier this year.   "I owe a massive thank-you to my trainer Claire Gaskin who has trained, supported and encouraged me the whole way.  I am very lucky to have a trainer so dedicated." Tracy and Willow

Bonnie's Diary A Week to Remember At the beginning of August I thought I must have finally gone mad when I entered 5 continuous days of competing at 3 different events. But everything seemed to go in my favour. The first event was on 4th at Homme House, which is a new British Eventing venue. I'd entered my homebred 4 year old, Direct Flo (Florence), in the 4 year old Breeding Championships qualifier. She had only done 1 BE event before and we hadn't had a great day, so I was a little unsure what to expect of her. But she shone and really didn't let me down. She had a 31.5 dressage, jumped an amazing clear show jumping and then popped very sweetly round the cross country, to finish 2nd and qualify for the National Breeding Championships in September. We got so many nice prizes, including a rug!!! On 5th I headed off to Burwarton Show with San Francisco II (Frankie), which is my Dutch Warmblood 11 year old eventer. We'd entered the open Working Hunter, which we did last year and won and were Champion Working Hunter, so we had quite a lot to live up to. Frankie was rather bright as usual but jumped a fab clear and then went on to really impress the judge when she rode him and win the class for a second year running as well as going on to be crowned Champion Working Hunter again. It was great to be bringing the trophy home again!!! Then on 6th I made the early morning trip down to Aston-Le-Walls with Frankie for The British Riding Clubs Horse Trials Championships. We'd qualified for the champs after being placed 2nd at Broadway in the Area qualifier. It was a very competitive field and Frankie had never had to do roads and tracks before, let alone steeple chase. On the first day we had dressage which was all very calm and we scored 31.9, which put us 3rd in our section and 7th overall. The cross country looked a nice bold course with a few big questions, including the water jump that had been in their advanced Horse Trials only two weeks previously. Frankie and I had a great ride round on the second day, he hung a bit on the steeple chase because he started off like a lion, but by the time we got to the cross country he was quite chilled and listened to me the whole way round, coming home clear and two seconds under the optimum time. This left us in 1st spot over night in our section and 1st overall. Although I was thrilled, I found it quite stressful because I would say show jumping is our worst phase and I was only in the lead by 1 point. But on the third day we kept our cool, despite knowing that the show jumping was causing trouble for other riders. By the time it came to my turn to jump, which was last of everybody because I was in the lead, I had actually got a 6 point lead which meant I had a fence in hand. But we actually didn't need it because Frankie popped round clear, making it feel very easy. As soon as I jumped the second last fence I knew that we were the new National Open Horse Trials Champions and I can't put into words how it felt. Frankie also knew, he had the biggest smile on his face. Amazing!!!!!!! The prize giving, lap of honour, photo's etc... were such a great moment. I got two sashes, two huge rosettes, a bridle and massive trophy. Two people I owe greatly are Jenny Thomas and Penny Grant, who drove all the way down to help and support me on the cross country day and then when I went into the lead they drove the 160 mile round trip again the following day to support me through the show jumping. They really are two great big stars!!!!!!