Tabitha Kyle retains the National 138cm title at the NAF Five Star British Showjumping National Championships
Wednesday 05 August 2020
The past few years have seen 13 year-old Tabitha Kyle from Loughborough, Leicestershire become known as a formidable competitor in the Pony and Children on Horses environment and her performance in this afternoons 138cm Championships at the NAF Five Star British Showjumping Championships served to showcase exactly why.
Qualifying her three rides through to the nine strong jump-off was a huge achievement in itself and her performance in the final round was quite outstanding as it saw her finish in 1st, 2nd and 7th place. First to go in the jump off with her 9 year-old gelding Playboy van de Zoetewei, with whom she won last year, she set off at a cracking pace with a strategy of hoping to force those behind her into making an error. Her strategy certainly paid off as she came home with a fast clear of of 36.26 seconds giving the rest of the field quite a task ahead of them if they wanted to take the title for themselves.
There were two that managed to beat Tabitha’s time but a pole down apiece saw them relegated further down the line up. Tabitha’s second pony Lindsuff Royal, a grey 17 year-old gelding, also put in a great round to finish clear in 37.76 seconds to see her secure the top two places whilst her third pony Mr Proper, a 9 year-old gelding, finished in 7th having a lowered a fence and picked up 4 penalties. It was Noora van Bulow who took 3rd with the 21 year-old gelding Sonas Barney.
Talking afterwards Tabitha said “As the first in the jump off I was hoping to go clear and also quick to pressure some people into having some poles down and it worked as a few went quicker but picked up faults. We had managed to get to a few shows before coming here but we were a bit rusty so I went in thinking we wouldn’t go mad but he [Playboy van de Zoetewei] just went really well so I let him go for it”.
The NAF Five Star British Showjumping Championships run between 3 – 11 August at Bolesworth and further information on the show can and full results can be found by visiting https://bit.ly/3fqDsmX.
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