RVRC Senior Teams
Area 10 Winter SJ Qualifier, 3rd December 2011
Senior SJ Team:
Tracy Robus - Dylan
Betsy Davis - Smokeyourpipe
Kelly Turner - Plough Man
Joseph Garry - Mary
Well, where do I start?! 5am, my alarm is going off, very bleary eyed I woke up at Shane's from the night before (It was Jim Hayter's surprise 40th). In the pitch black with the rain pelting down, I was on my way to the yard to get ready, Joseph is stabled with me so at 6.15am we were ready to rock. We arrived at Ardingly about 7.45am and it had stopped raining - phew! Tracy was mustard and arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed with lots of time to spare (completely organised) she was onboard and warming up. There was only about half an hour between us, so mum (team helper) went off to declare the team, show flu certificates and get numbers. Meanwhile Joseph & I were walking the course wondering where Kelly was, as there was only about 40mins before she would be in the ring. We eventually heard from Kelly and she had accidentally put in the organisers post code instead of the show ground post code! We decided I had better swap places with her; now less than half hour to spare I had to get a shift on.
We all jumped clear in the first round so we were going through on zero which was just fantastic. Tracy jumped another clear on her whizzy pony Dylan, I had an unlucky fence down on Smokeyourpipe as did Kelly onboard Plough Man and Joseph went clear on Mary (who is sadly for sale). After the two rounds we finished on a total score of 4, so we had to go head to head against Sevenoaks who also finished on 4. The pressure was slowly building up but never the less we gave it our all. After both teams had jumped there was silence; we had STILL finished on the same score against Sevenoaks so it came down to time. All four times were added together and the team who were quickest won. Sadly, we were beaten by Sevenoaks, however, we were all still very pleased to come second out of 14 teams. There was also individual success for Tracy who finished 4th individually and Joseph who finished 5th individually.
This was my last competition acting as senior show jumping team manager and what a fantastic result to finish on. Despite the early morning, the rain, being tired and lack of navigation we all had a really good day and great fun!!
Betsy x
AREA 10 TEAM QUALIFIER, ARDINGLY 3RD/4TH DECEMBER 2011
SENIOR DRESSAGE TEAMS
We sent three senior teams as follows:
TEAM 2ND PLACE - Vodka Gimlet > Sarah Baldwin/Athlone Sox (2nd), Tanya Draude/Bill Bailey (4th), Clare Walton-Cole/Carethago Z (3rd), Lisa Pilbeam/Culawn Celtic Queen.
TEAM 5TH PLACE – Vodka Sundowner > Berith Eriksson/Lily Lou (2nd), Juliet Langdon-Down/Baly Motey Charlie (8th), Monica Deacon/Tiger Lily, Shane Petkovic/Silver Nancy.
TEAM UNPLACED-Vodka Vesper > Deb Shillabeer/Repeal (6th), Mel Henden/Nutcracker, Francis Zysemil/Charlie, Helen Brophy/Noirot (7th).
We haven’t heard officially yet but we are hoping the Vodka Gimlet Team have qualified for the Championships!
Donna and Georgie Gilbert and Heather Deane were our gallant helpers and we thank them for giving up their time, without these helpers our teams wouldn’t be able to compete.
SENIOR SHOW JUMPING TEAMS, by Betsy Davis
TEAM 2nd PLACE - Joseph Garry, Kelly Turner, Tracey Robus and Betsy Davis. After a fierce jump off against Sevenoaks although we were all on the same score but Sevenoaks just pipped us with the time.
Senior SJ Team - Ardingly
We all had such fun and it was a lovely way for me to spend my last duties as SJ Team Manager.
London & South East Championships, Mattingley, Hampshire - 25th Sept 2011
They may not have reached the dizzy heights of the National Championships at Lincoln, but the senior teams competing in dressage, show jumping and horse trials all did well enough in the area events to qualify for the London and South East Championships.
So it was, that a convoy of lorries and trailers carrying 9 team members to compete in the three disciplines left Sussex before 7am last Sunday (25th September) to make the journey to Mattingley, Hampshire.
All ran very smoothly with no reports of long tail backs on the motorway, punctures or failing light bulbs and foreign lorry drivers to help, and every one arrived on time. The organisers were also very relaxed and the event ran like clockwork.
It was worth the journey as the show jumping team of Charlie (Juliet Langdon-Down), Nancy (Shane Petkovic), Dylan (Tracy Robus) and Smartie (Nicky Saint) secured first place for the team, with an overall team score of 4 faults on the quite bright and spooky course. And Juliet’s request that the team members plait also paid off as the same team picked up the best turned out prize as well - a huge shield, which along with the show jumping cup will be held by each team member for three months. Special mention must be give to Tracy who was not competing in dressage as the other team members, and so had no need to plait, but created a perfect row of sewn in plaits on Dylan - not a rubber band in sight.
The horse trials team also put in a good performance with Nadia and Darius taking a very impressive, first place and Vicky Stephenson and Willy picking up 8th, to give the team 8th place. Hayley Smales with Golly Miss Molly was unlucky to pick up time faults cross country in an otherwise faultless round and all three scores counted as poor Betsy Davis’s horse Lola injured herself warming up for the show jumping and was forced to withdraw.
The dressage team of Charlie, Nancy, Smartie and Sarah Baldwin’s Sweep, suffered a bit from having to fit their dressage rounds in between show jumping, but all did very well in there arena's with the team coming 9th (missing 8th and a rosette by 1 point!)and individually Sarah and Sweep came 5th in her arena and Nicky and Smartie picked up 8th place in their arena.
The competition was a good end to the season with everyone arriving home safely, if a little tired at around 9pm on Sunday night.
SJ Team Winners - Tracey Robus, Nicky Saint, Shane Petkovic and Juliet Langdon-Down with cup and turn out shield.
Area 10 Sept 2011 - National Championships Lincoln
OR - "Willy, Gillie, Dilly and Lilly at Lincoln!"
The senior open dressage team, Kate Ludden, Berith Eriksson, Nicola Grainge and Jessica Hunn-replaced at Lincoln by Vicky Stephenson and also Vicky, Senior intermediate SJ, qualified to represent RVRC at Lincoln this year. Competing was a piece of cake compared to actually getting there and back! That's what we call a challenge!! Berith and Joseph, and Nicola Grainge all got up relatively unscathed on friday afternoon. Kate Ludden (with Gilbert) kindly agreed to take Vicky (with Willy), plus Juliet as catering manager, map reader and stand in Chef d'equippe, and Frank and Rachael as grooms,
all had the journey from hell! They were late leaving due to a certain Mercedes garage not returning the lorry until friday morning, this resulted in a diversion to Chiddingstone to collect Gilbert, followed by 1/2 hour queue at dartford tunnel, followed by 8 mile jam on A14 (circumnavigated via lanes and Huntingdon by Juliet's map reading, followed by a loud bang which turned out to be a blown tyre, followed by 2 hr wait while it was fixed with horses grazing on Peterborough services lawn, followed by Lincoln ring road being closed for roadworks and eventually arriving at showgound at 9pm having left Cranbrook at 11.15am!! The words "never" and "again" being frequently uttered!!
After a gourmet meal and a short night, horses were duly prepared for battle! All rode brilliant tests and the Team came 9th, with Kate 3rd, Nicola Grainge 7th and Berith 10th in their arenas.
Vicky then had a lovely round sj with 1 down (there were very few C.R.). Willy was feeling a bit stiff after long journey and then night in stable so Vicky decided not to put him through another 3 hours standing to jump again. However looking up the results they have her down for 7th which is amazing (and somewhat baffling as they were all supposed to do 2 rounds!!)
Lorry and horses reloaded and thankfully relatively uneventful journey home, Cranbrook at 10pm and Kate eventually home 10.45 and exhausted from all the driving. However Joseph and Berith had the troublesome return journey (much funnier when told by Joseph!) They found their headlight bulbs had blown so unable to buy any anywhere asked (with sign language!) a foreign lorry driver for help. He kindly gave them some bulbs and settled down for the night only to be woken again by Joseph asking for help to fit them!. He was very helpful and they made it safely home. Well done to all the seniors and thanks to Jo Gallant for organising them through qualifiers and entries etc! Next year here we go...or maybe not?!?
Thanks and well done to all of you, Juliet.
Area 10 Dressage Teams 24th July 2011 - Rother Valley Area 10 Success Again!
What a fantastic day for Rother Valley. A nice local venue, sunshine throughout the day, lovely flat dressage arena's and many, many rosettes won.
The senior Open team won! Hurrah off to Lincoln we go. The team was (individual placings in brackets):
Kate Ludden and Lewaldo Star (1st), Berith Eriksson and Liy Lou (1st), Nicola Grainge and Dilly (1st), Jess Hunn and Lenny Boy (5th).
The senior novice team came 2nd:
Sarah Baldwin and Athone Sox (5th), Juliet Langdon-Down and Charlie (2nd), Shane Petkovic and Silver Nancy (4th), Nicky Saint and Smartly Dun (6th).
 
Senior Open Dressage Team_______________________Senior Novice Dressage Team
Area 10 Horse Trials, Borde HIll, 9th July 2011, By Juliet Langdon-Down
Rother Valley members were a force to be reckoned with at the recent Area 10 Horse Trials at Borde Hill.
Team 2nd RVRC Robins Senior Novice: Shane Petkovic (5th), Kate Ludden (3rd), Lisa Pilbeam (4th), Harriet Brown
Team 4th RVRC Ravens Senior Novice: Betsy Davis, Andrea Furness, Lisa Pilbeam (1st), Hayley Smales
Team 3rd RVRC Rooks Senior Intermed: Katie Preston, Vicky Stephenson, Amanda Smith, Kristy Cutler
RVRC individual Senior Intermed: Kate Ludden 5th
Pre Intro Class: 1st Andrea Furness
We entered 2 Novice teams, 1 intermediate team and 2 individuals. After the normal team changes due to lame horses, lame lorries etc, right up to the night before the event, we actually all made it to Borde Hill! (phew I hadn't realised being Chef d'equipe was such a stressful job, give me competing anyday!! Much sympathy and congatulations to all previous and current team managers!!). Well what a day we had, everyone did brilliantly! Fab dressage and great XC rounds with just a bit of bad luck for some on the SJ. (except Vicky and Willy who had amazing luck after hitting 2 jumps the poles went 18" in the air and landed back in the cups for a clear round!)
We qualified 1 novice team and Lisa Pilbeam as Novice individual for the Aston Championships (report to follow) and the other team was 4th and have qualified for the London and SE Champs in september. Great results all round!
There were still a few dramas on the day - Poor Kate Ludden, with 10 mins before the 1st of her 2 dressage tests, was in agony with her back in spasm! Team manager to the rescue! Begged dr steward to let her go later in class, emergency drugs (nurofen!) rustled up and quick Pilates lesson and she was lifted on board and rode 2 great tests! Was a bit self inflicted we understand- heavy night-out at Take That concert.........!
A huge thank you to all ther helpers who Jump Judged (in particular Sarah Mitchell and Christine Buckland who did all morning and weren't attached to any riders), the team couldn't have run without you.
Well done everyone and looking forward to Festival of the Horse qualifier at Lodge Farm, october 2nd.
|
