Katy Mintoft, Lily Baum, Harriet Du Boulay and Erin Smith all competed at famous Hickstead show jumping ground during the first weekend of the holidays and what a weekend it turned out to be.
They won the NSEA 85cm Eventer’s Challenge and became the National Champions!
It was a challenging and very technical course in immense heat and the girls were the only team out of a total of forty one teams to jump with all four of their team members clear across both the show jumping and cross country phases. In total there were nearly 200 children competing in the class and there were only thirteen clears, four of which were ours! This gives an idea of the quality of all of their riding.
Originally a few months ago, Katy, Lily and Harriet went to Northallerton Equestrian Centre and won the qualifier which enabled them to attend the championships at Hickstead. After a sharp intake of breath by parents as to how far it was and that it was practically in Brighton, we all made the journey south last Saturday.
A whole weekend later, intricate knowledge of the M1 service stations and a night of missed sleep travelling back on Sunday evening was completely worth it to see the children ride at the famous Hickstead ground and ultimately win! They held their nerve and manoeuvred ponies through the gruelling course skilfully.
We are so proud of the four of them who became known as ‘those lovely girls from Yorkshire’.
Sally Mintoft
Ryedale School is a partner in and co-ordinator for the Yorkshire Teaching School Alliance.
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