The final affiliated British Showjumping competition on Inchcooan Equestrian’s calendar for 2014 attracted wide support right up the levels.
Taking second place in the 90cm open class and then leading the 95cm national amateur qualif ier was St Andrews’ rider Phoebe Tang on her novice mare Suzie Q II.
Suzie, a Dutch-bred 15-year-old mare, out of the Variant daughter Leslie and sired by Jazz, was bred for dressage. However, sidelined as a broodmare for the last few years and having bred two colt foals this season and last by Ardento and Hemmingway respectively, Suzie is now making a successful return to ridden work and an easy transition to British Showjumping.
The partnership made its debut in the BS arena at the Scottish Trophy Show at Snec the weekend prior to Inchcoonans, finishing double clear and 14th in the 1m open class from 70 starters.
“She can be a little spooky, but she went beautifully at Inchcoonans,” said Phoebe’s mother Clare, who now has nine horses at livery including Suzie’s two offspring at Brownhills Farm, outside St Andrews.
“It’s fabulous to see her take to jumping so easily, particularly as she only had her second foal around six months previously.”
Despite being bred for dressage, the scopey mare adds strength to the growing string of horses which Phoebe, 18, has been developing. Phoebe, who is studying computer games development, benefits from lessons with Carnoustie-based young rider Leo Lorimer.
Taking yet more red ribbons home to Brownhills, Ben Boley, another horse from the same yard, prevailed in the Discovery class, having already taken a third place in the 95cm amateur.
He was piloted for his owner John Raeside at Inchcoonans by 20-year-old Paige Aitken, who lives next to the farm, outside St Andrews.
Paige, a former Oatridge College student, has been riding Ben on and off for the last few years. However, she has only recently begun going out and about on a more competitive basis. This was only the partnership’s second affiliated BS competition, having finished 10th in the 1m open class at the Scottish Tophy Show the previous weekend.
“Ben is a great all-rounder and he hunts as well,” said Paige, who works as a shop assistant at Balgove Larder.
“He’s such a big horse for me, but we have a great bond.”
The 11-year-old gelding, sired by My O My and bred out of the Clover Hill daughter Milestone Clover, was previously ridden up to Newcomers level by Kirsty Aird and has also competed at British Eventing with Morag Snow of Incharvie.
Across both the final classes of the afternoon the 1m05 national amateur qualifier and the Newcomers/1m10 open Dundee rider Brian Fitzpatrick and his 11-year-old home-mare Willow IX proved unassailable.
Brian, a retired solicitor, bought her dam Reggy Van Herikhave a Heartbreaker/Grannus mare from the Nijhof Stud in Holland when she was two years old.
Willow, is known at home as Emma, and is sired by Voltaire.
“I broke her in and trained her, but she developed a paralysed throat and had to undergo a tie-back operation approximately five years ago, and she has taken some time to recover from that,” he said.
“She’s always been very talented,” he added.
“But she has become even more so as the years have gone by as she has become much more rideable with her maturity.”
Brian, who took up showjumping at the age of 34 when he became “too old to play football”, trains locally with Lucy Guild. He has personally achieved placings with Willow up to Newcomers, whilst Lucy, in turn, rode the mare briefly last year to contest some classes at Foxhunter level.
Brian and Willow have previously won at 90cm, 1m05 and 1m10 at Inchcoonans.
Affiliated BS returns to Inchcoonans following a break for the festive season with the next diary date scheduled to cover the weekend of February 21 and 22.
equestrian@thecourier.co.uk Results
80cm open: 1 Pamela Seivwright, Zaffaran Pearl; 2 Philippa Merry, Woodytwoshoes; 3 Wendy Cochran, Ballysax Cotterstown. 85cm national amateur qualifier: 1 Catherine Forrest, Detis Delight; 2 Lindsay Watts, Twlight Mystery; 3 Pamela Seivwright, Ullrich XI. British novice: 1 Elinor Macdonald, Hunter of Beauty; 2 Laura Collins, Donnadoni B; 3 Jill Chapman, Doublestrike. 90cm open: 1 Lindsay Watts, Twilight Mystery; 2 Phoebe Tang, Susie Q II. 95cm national amateur qualifier: 1 Phoebe Tang, Susie Q II; 2 Stephanie Sturrock, Callround; 3 Paige Aitken, Ben Boley. Discovery/1m open: 1 Paige Aitken, Ben Boley; 2 Lizzie Mcfadzean, Rio Bravo; 3 Elinor Macdonald, Hunter of Beauty. 1m05 national amateur qualifier: 1 Brian Fitzpatrick, Willow IX; 2 Gemma Mackintosh, WSF Oslo. Newcomers/1m10 open: 1 Brian Fitzpatrick, Willow IX.