The Equestrian Blog

BSJA Launch New Series

The BSJA has launched a new £60,000 competition series at UK County Shows.

The series will run at Devon County, Royal Highland, South of England, Great Yorkshire, Royal Norfolk, New Forest, Pembroke and Royal Berkshire.

It will carry a total of £60,000 in prize-money and will be funded by the British Show Jumping Association Business Partnership and their county show venues.

The 1.50m eight class series will be run on a league table points system and will conclude at Royal Berkshire in September.

The league table will carry a bonus of £45,000 worth of rider ranking points with £10,000 of those going to the winner. Ranking points will be awarded in a sliding scale down to 8th place alongside the competition cash prizes.

"It's superb we have been able to introduce a series at this level that meet our objectives for assessing horse and rider, and is a great stepping stone for those capable of progressing to four and five star Nation's cup competitions," said newly appointed chairman of the international committee Clare Whitaker.

"This is a fantastic series made possible by the BSJA Business Partnership, which was formed with a view to bring like-minded businesses together through the sport to assist in delivery of medals for Great Britain" said the BSJA spokesman Maria Clayton.

Full Details on the BSJA website

Horse Riding & The Winter Blues

While we UK horse owners and riders tough it out through torrential rain, fields full of mud, chapped lips, chilblains and freezing toes;......

Spare a thought for the poor USA and International horse owners and competitiors who've had to drag themselves over to the 2008 CN Winter Equestrian Festival which officially opened Wednesday and kicks off 12 weeks of international equestrian competition at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center.

Where Ireland's Shane Sweetnam won the $6,000 1.40-meter competition, beating 54 other entries and riding Sienna. Even that competition name 'Suncast Opener' makes you long for hot sunny days.

Sunny days; and the Winter Equestrian Festival even offers $5 million in prize money.... makes you wanna p'@#k"

 "The sport in America needs to catch up to Europe, and what's happening here is really fantastic," says US international competitor Mark Wylde. "It's what we need as riders and competitors. We need to try and raise the standard in our own country."

A 12 week festival, $5 million in prize money .... catch up, catch up !!

Ah well ..... back to mucking out and looking forward to Spring; when there'll just be more rain and more mud...... but warmer brighter mornings !!

Olympia

What an amazeing Puissance last night.

William Whitaker won on Insultech Leonardo, they were the only ones to clear the 2.16m wall.

You can keep upto date with all the goings on at Olympia here.

Dont miss the FEI world cup qualifying event today at 2.30pm on BBC 1.

Horse World Equestrian Centre

Horse world what a great place, took my mare to their show Sunday, in which we took 2nd place in the indoor show jumping only beaten by 10th of a second. Had a fantastic time and what an excellant turn out dispite the weather.

The Facilities are excellant, indoor and outdoor warm up area, with a lovely big indoor arena for the jumping, onsite cafe looking onto the arena.

Very well run and eveyone had a wonderful time, pretty rosettes to 6th place and medals to 3rd including prize money.

A big thank you to Horse world for a exciting and fun day, so looking forward to the next one, many thanks from Sheila at Lincoln Equestrian.