Valkyrie makes Championship flight
Wednesday 08 October 2014
Suffolk rider Chloe Winchester added her name to an illustrious Horse of the Year Show honours list at the LG Arena in Birmingham on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old, who lives in Gislingham, won the Canaan Farm Young Riders Championship of Great Britain, and in doing so followed former previous winners like London 2012 gold medallist Nick Skelton, Michael Whitaker, Ellen Whitaker and Robert Whitaker.
And she did it in style, clocking 36.97 seconds aboard Avoca Valkyrie, an 11-year-old mare owned by her mother Gilly, in a four horse jump-off to win by more than 1.5 seconds from Oxfordshire-based Alfie Bradstock, riding Caicos. "I am over the moon. I can't believe it has actually happened," said a tearful Chloe, who competed for Great Britain at this year's European Young Rider Championships in Italy.
"I have been watching HOYS for years and years, so to actually win here is amazing. Looking at the previous winners of this class is just amazing, and that lap of honour, I just wanted to go round and round in that arena! I have learnt so much from being involved with the Great Britain Young Riders, and I was fourth in the Arena UK grand prix recently, so that really set us up for here. Going into the jump-off, I was second to go, so I was hoping to post a clear round and be fast enough."
Second place went to Alfie Bradstock with the bay gelding Caicos owned by Graham Fletcher with their double clear in a time of 38.51 seconds. Christie Pritchard with her Tracey Pritchard’s bay gelding Waldemar were sat in third place when, despite putting in the fastest time they lowered a pole to finish on 4 penalties in a breath taking time of 33.94 seconds. 4th place went to Laura Robinson with Neal Robinsons grey gelding Halmond with their 4 penalty finish time of 36.34 seconds.
Audio link to Chloe Winchester, winner of Canaan Farm Young Riders Championship of Great Britain: http://www.lloydbell.co.uk/access/client_zone/HOYS_Chloe.Winchester.mp3
Full results of the Championship can be found by visiting http://results.scgvisual.com/2014/birmingham/r3.html
