Wednesday 15 May 2019

20th /21st April Spring Event and National Novice Qualifier, Ashfields


20th/21st  April Spring Event and National  Novice Qualifier was held at Ashfields enjoying the amazing Easter weekend sunshine,

  Thursday and Friday were training days with trainers Anna Grayston, Minta Winn, Sara Howe and Sonny Hillier, with 54 training sessions booked and some drivers using the opportunity of both days. More training days were requested last season so it’s been brilliant to see the uptake. If you’re interested in booking for the future please see additional dates on our events page.

  We had 55 entries for the 2 day event with 8 novice drivers entering for the National Qualifier, NQ Novice Horse Malcolm Brown scored 52.14 and NQ Novice Pony Christine McLeod scored 50.26 both achieving first place in their dressage class, Novice Pony Lucy Scott achieved the best dressage of the day with an amazing score of 30.52,

Fiona Powell’s cones course drove nicely seeing 17 drivers achieving a double clear. 

  Sunday brought the extreme warm weather forecast, so a decision was made to reduce section A of the marathon from 5 to 4 kilometres with no time change, enabling drivers a slower start reserving their energy for the obstacles.  Section B was 6.1 kilometres. The ground conditions were reasonably hard with the bridge obstacle displaying a slippery surface, studs certainly played a role.

 A handful of people worked unbelievably hard to complete the new EACDG  North American obstacle, which was introduced for the weekend.  General  comments indicated the obstacle drove smoothly although the squares seemed to come extremely fast, watch out for the arrival of the totem poles to complete the theme.

The horse teams gave the spectators a great competition with Wilf Bowman Ripley winning the dressage, followed my all teams going double clear in the cones, with Dan Naprous having the slight advantage in the marathon giving him overall first place. Please view full event outcome on our result page.

Congratulations to Sally Bullar and Malcolm Brown, both qualifying for the Nationals in their class. 

An enormous thank you to everybody who made the event possible, 

Please remember with kind permission of Louise the next 2 day event is at Blandings on May the 25th and 26th, be great to see you there whether you’re a spectator/volunteer/ driving, you’re all welcome to join us for another opportunity of a great weekend.