TEAM RESULTS 2026

The day had finally come! The team who had qualified for the arena eventing championships back in February were heading off to Aston Le Walls! As we had mentioned in our last update, the team needed to have a shuffle due to a couple of horse injuries (wishing Frenchie and Betty a speedy recovery as we are desperate to get them back involved with our club updates soon!). The team we took forward included Kerrie and Minstral (Mini), Tracey and Dora, Mike and Lady Caoimhe and Katie and Roisin Dun (Rosie) and the event actually started on Thursday afternoon for Katie who stood in as our volunteer for the event and helped set up the show jumping. This did give her an early insight into the course, but also meant there was a night of worry and panic of what Rosie might think to it all! The course/venue was definitely championship level, with the course going across two arenas, including going through the water twice. So, it was really going to ask some questions of everyone. Onto Friday, and Katie was first to go with a very early time so a 3am alarm was needed! They arrived in good time and managed to have another walk of the course which did calm down the nerves ever so slightly! Rosie has only done one previous 70cm show jumping round before and that was in preparation for this, so it was safe to say there was very little expectation, and the aim was to just see how we got on! It was safe to say that Rosie thoroughly enjoyed the occasion, and she came out very keen. They had a great show jumping round, just having a pole down before moving straight onto the cross country part. The first two fences were in with the show jumps, before leaving the arena and going through the water for the first time. All ok so far! Rosie just wanted to have a gentle stroll through the water given the heat! They carried on around all the way to fence 8 where they picked up an elimination for 3 refusals, but Katie was thrilled to have got around as far as they did and we’re sure it gave them so much confidence for the future! Next to go was Kerrie and Mini who also had a very early start! They got themselves in the zone and were soon ready to go in and give it their all! They both did a fantastic job around the show jumping, producing a really smart clear round, getting them out into the cross country. Mini was popping around sweetly, just needing a little look at fence 5 before he was sure it was safe to continue! Unfortunately, Mini took a little dislike to the corner at fence 7, popping in another stop and causing Kerrie to have a closer look at the surface (naughty Mini!). They both came away fit and healthy, if not a little confused at what happened! Third in for the team was Mike and Caoimhe. They again had a great pop around the show jumping, just picking up an unfortunate four faults for a pole. Onto the cross country for them both and Caoimhe loved it! Jumping everything sweetly and staying nice and forward. The final fence on the course was a joker. This was a show jump which was 10cm higher than the rest and requires some careful riding after the horses have opened up around the course. Well, this was no problem for Caoimhe, she jumped this clear! They came away with 6 time faults, but that doesn’t matter, it was great to get one of the team home. Finally, it was Tracey and Dora’s turn. Dora thought she’d keep us all on her toes as she had a couple of rubs on some of the show jumps, but they all stayed up and she produced a clear round (she was obviously just conserving some energy for the cross country!). They moved onto cross country at a good pace, navigating everything in their path brilliantly. They were approaching the joker having gone clear to that point, and they went on to jump the joker clear as well! Fantastic result and they were met with cheers all around! Excitingly, the commentator announced that they were inside the time and had gone into the lead! There was still about 70 competitors to go at this point, so it was a long wait to see where they would end up. They managed to hang on to a top 3 place and got the all-important sash and goodies! Well done Tracey and Dora!! p.s. sorry about the lack of pics for this one, we were too busy socialising!