National Show Jumping Champions Achieve Weekend-Long Success

Just before half term our school riding team headed up to Buckingham for the National Schools Show Jumping Finals - something that we had qualified for back in the Spring Term.

This event is the highlight of the school riding year and something that everyone spends the year trying to qualify for. There were over 1000 competitors present and the very wet weather meant some pretty muddy conditions down by the temporary stables and around the car parks.

In our first class we jumped in the outside ring along with 45 school teams from across the country. The top 8 teams qualified for the finals in the inside ring and the jump off.

Hazlegrove won the outside ring class qualifying to jump last in the evening in the finals. The pressure was on. The course was causing lots of trouble, but our four riders jumped brilliantly and really rose to the occasion in front of a huge crowd - we won. National Champions with all four of our riders jumping clear in really quick times. Amazing. An unbelievable achievement, especially as in this class there is no age limit and our four riders were certainly some of the youngest.

The next day and in the slightly smaller class our school team finished on 4 faults in the outside ring, however Josh qualified as one of the top 8 individuals for the finals. He finished 2nd overall.

That night we had two Hazlegrove riders – Josh and Emily, competing for England (something only the top eight school riders in England had qualified to do) and Anna riding in the Rest of the World team - it was a very exciting Nations Cup event and the crowds were amazing- England finished in 2nd and the Rest of the World 3rd.

On the final day Emily was competing as an individual and again managed to qualify for the finals by finishing in the top 8. She too finished an incredible 2nd.

Hazlegrove had the most amazing Championships and it is hard to put into words this incredible achievement.

Mrs Cobb