Our equestrian squad were out over the May Bank Holiday weekend taking part in the national schools’ event at Princethorpe College in Warwickshire.

The long format horse trials event is a gruelling two days of competition. Day 1 involves a balanced and controlled dressage test and then round of show jumping, followed by a tough speed and endurance test on Day 2. This competition is unique, and requires considerable fitness training beforehand, as well as an accurate use of a stopwatch, some navigation skills, awareness of pace and recovery rates of your horse, and bravery and accuracy for the course of solid fences at the end.

Our riders were in different sections, and also in teams, and each of them came home successful.

Iyla Gallacher gained 4th individually, and a team 2nd in a mixed team in the 80cm class on her new horse that has never done a full horse trials before.

In the 90cm sections, Jodie Bennett was squeezed into 2nd place, less than 1 point behind the leader (and one of the highest dressage scores of the entire competition).

Rufus Taylor came 6th in his section and Abbey Rimmer on a young horse who has only just started competing managed a 15th place.

Our team of Jodie, Rufus and Abbey pulled off a 2nd place overall, as well as 2nd place for the best ISA schools.

Mollie Pickering’s horse was sadly unable to compete, but Mollie gave huge support to the whole team, running round all weekend with buckets of water, horse equipment and refreshments for riders, and was definitely a contributory factor in the overall success.

Once again the Abbey Gate College team spirit and camaraderie of pupils and parents alike made for a great weekend. Well done and thank you to everyone.