BE Young Horse Championships makes history

The KBIS British Eventing Young Horse Championships at Osberton saw some unusual results, with two out of the four classes ending in a draw for the first time in its 11-year history.

Joint champions

In the Four-Year-Old Championships Ginny Turnbull, who was riding the homebred mare Jolie Lark, tied with Sophie Jenman on her mother’s Irish-bred Ballycanu. They were crowned joint champions, both finishing on a dressage score of 29.3pen.

The Five-Year-Old Championship was won by Emily Llewellyn onboard the Dutch-bred Emirati Nightsky. Second place went to Louise Bradley with Irish-bred Sportsfield Lord Livesey, while Rosalind Canter came third (No Excuse), fourth (Shannondale Sue) and seventh (Pencos Crown Jewel).

‘Too old’

There was another tie, with the top three in the Six-Year-Old Championship all finishing on 41.1pen. 
William Fox-Pitt took the top two spots with the Irish-bred horses Reinstated and The Soapdodger.

There was just one second between them on the cross-country, which saw Reinstated take the title. Zoe Wilkinson finished third with Parkfield Quintessential.

“I am very fortunate in having some great horses for the future, although I am really too old to be talking about the future with horses!” said William.

Hat-trick of wins

The Seven-Year-Old Championship went to Kitty King and Dutch-bred Ceylor, who completed a hat-trick of Young Horse Championships titles. The pair previously won the five- and six-year old classes.

They led from the off, finishing more than six points ahead of Pippa Funnell and homebred Billy Cuckoo. Alex Hua Tian and his own British-bred Don Geniro came third.

Clash of the titans

There was yet another draw in Osberton’s CCI2*, with the world’s number one and two battling it out for second and third place.

William won the class with Fernhill Pimms (39.3pen), and was joint second with Andrew Hoy after they both finished on 40.9pen. William achieved another one-two, however, as Luxury FH was closer to the optimum time on the cross-country.

Andrew was placed third riding Composer.

Fantastic result

William was clearly happy to put Blenheim behind him, where he retired Fernhill Pimms after a run-out at the eleventh fence.

“When I entered him I thought it could be great or another Blenheim, but it was a fantastic result and it is great to have him back on track,” said William. “It was nice to have the luxury of going into the show jumping on Fernhill Pimms knowing I had already won with Luxury FH.

“They are both good jumpers and I was delighted with them and for their owner Catherine Witt.”