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Blair Castle Horse Trials: Pictures as riders and spectators enjoy the action

The first day of Blair Castle Horse Trials saw the return of the Hunter and Highland Pony shows, plus dressage, show jumping and cross country.

Exciting cross country action from the first day of Blair Castle Horse Trials. Image: Steve MacDougall/ DC Thomson.
Exciting cross country action from the first day of Blair Castle Horse Trials. Image: Steve MacDougall/ DC Thomson.

The first day of Blair Castle Horse Trials saw the return of the Hunter and Highland Pony shows, plus dressage, show jumping and cross country.

Riders splashed through the famous water jump, navigated the twisty cross country course, and put on their best performances for showing and dressage classes.

Blair Castle stalwart Kirsty Aird, who had numerous rides across all the showing classes, started off her 2023 show in winning style.

The Balado-based coach rode Laura McCallum’s Tinnakill Kizzy to victory in the hotly contested Nichola Ritchie Novice Working Hunter class.

However, it was Lanarkshire-based Gillian Anderson and her own JJ’s Prince Chaccomo who dominated the other Working Hunter classes, winning both the HOYS Qualifier, the BHS Scotland Working Hunter Final and, unsurprisingly, the Blair Castle Working Hunter Championship.

The weather held up nicely, with competitors and spectators basking in sunshine for some parts of the day.

Our photographer Steve MacDougall was there for all the action.

A dressage test in front of Blair Castle.
Judging is a serious business!
Spectators watch the working hunter classes.
Showing in-hand.
Looking sharp.
Taking on the water jump.
Making the cross country course look easy.
Cherene Robertson with 13 month old Daisy (of Lunar Eclipse and Hoof Gang Experience) alongside sisters Bethany Whitelock (aged 6) and Eliza Whitelock (aged 3) from Aberdeenshire.
Scenes from the dressage arena.
Crowds fill Blair Castle’s grounds for the first day of the horse trials.
Children and teachers from Blair Atholl Primary School visited the trials.
Gordon Ritchie and daughters Verity Ritchie and Hannah Leslie and grandson Atholl Leslie (Hannah’s 14-year-old son) with the Nichola Ritchie Memorial Rose Bowl in honour of Gordon’s wife and Verity and Hannah’s mother that passed away with motor neurone disease.
Hannah Ritchie and father Gordon Ritchie present the Nichola Ritchie Memorial Rose Bowl (in honour of Gordon’s wife and Hannah’s mother, that passed away with motor neurone disease) to Kirsty Aird of Balado.
Mounting a trusty steed.
Popping out of the woodlands in the cross country course.
Another rider tackles the water jump.
In the centre is Cherene Robertson with 13 month old Daisy alongside the rest of the Lunar Eclipse and Hoof Gang Experience visiting the horse trials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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