Team Fairfax Young Riders Win in Deauville
Friday 24 May 2013
Chef de’quipe and Team Coach for the GB Team Fairfax Young Rider team was delighted when the team secured a victory in the Young Riders Nations Cup in Deauville, France this afternoon.
The team consisting of four put in some fantastic performances to finish on a penalty score of 18, some two penalties ahead of Belgium whom they relegated to 2nd position. Germany finished in 3rd place on a score of 25 penalties with Switzerland on 30 points taking 4th place.
The course was a difficult one which asked a number of questions in addition to ensuring combinations kept their pace up if they were to finish within the time allowed.
First to go was 18 year-old Chloe Aston from Tring with Quainton Stud’s 9 year-old chestnut gelding Quiet Easy 4. Leaving all the jumps standing, they stopped the clock just outside the time allowed incurring 3 penalties. A peformance that was matched in the second round, albeit in a slightly faster time, resulting in just 1 penalty being allocated. Their rounds were extremely solid ones bearing in mind there were literally a handful of combinations managing to jump clear, let alone within the time allowed.
Second to go was 19 year-old Yasmin Pinchen from Crawley West Sussex with her mother’s (Nancy) 10 year old bay mare Ashkari. With time being an obvious issue for many riders, they again came in just outside the time allowed incurring a time penalty in addition to the 4 penalties they had picked up on the course having touched a fence. Their second round was a mirror image of the one produced by Chloe, with them jumping clear, but again just outside the time and incurring another time penalty.
Pippa Allen, aged 19 years from Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland but currently based in Germany was the third to go for the team with her father’s (Peter) 9 year-old bay gelding Cupido Z. Keeping the pace up they were able to complete the course within the time required but an unfortunate lowering of a fence in each of their rounds saw them finish on four penalties on each occasion.
Anchorman, Graham Gillespie from Dunbartonshire, aged 18 years was the last of the four to enter the arena with his own 9 year-old bay gelding Eros H. As a combination they didn’t have the best of rounds incurring two fences down in each round plus a time penalty in the first. With only the three best scores for the team counting in each of the rounds this meant Graham’s results became the dropscore for the team on this occasion.
With poles falling for all nations and just five riders in total managing to produce a clear within the time allowed, it was a competition that left everything to fight for through to the last rider entering the arena. A major factor in this would not only have been the course but also the weather conditions that were seen through the afternoon including an extremely heavy hail storm once comeptitions were underway.
Earlier in the day the Junior Team riding under the Fairfax banner had contested the Junior Nations Cup title that was in contention. Finishing in 5th position on a penalty score of 17, they were just one penalty away from sharing joint 3rd place with Germany and Belgium who were placed behind the Netherlands and France who were in 1st and 2nd place respectively.
The Junior team were made of Jake Saywell with Special K IV who jumped the one of the few double clears of the competition. James Shore and Vitales, Tania Moody and Vitis and Jessica Mendoza and Spirit T.
The British youth teams are sponsored by Fairfax Saddles. It is Fairfax’s primary aim to improve the performance of the competition horse. All the saddles and girths are developed using the most advanced technology and are tested extensively. All research and design work is carried out under the direction of Vanessa Fairfax, an ex-International showjumper and University qualified designer. The company is based in Walsall and manufactures all its own products.
The GB Showjumping Teams are strongly supported by the UK Sport Lottery funded BEF World Class Programme. They Pony teams are further supported by Champion Hats, Next and Animo.
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