As others began their half term holidays, the equestrian team started their long journey to the All England Showground, Hickstead, to complete in the NSEA national arena eventing and county finals.
Sidcot School were represented in the 80cm arena eventing, 90cm arena eventing, 1m arena eventing, 90cm county show jumping for Somerset and the dressage county championships for Somerset.
Even to reach the championships to compete at this prestigious venue was an incredible achievement and something that each rider should be proud of. The riders (and their very important support team) had prepared fantastically for these championships, and this was evident after at least 1 team in each class entered was placed!
80cm arena eventing- we had 2 teams qualified for this class but were up against 52 other teams from schools across the UK. Daisy Bowles was the pathfinder on the first day, as all the other team members would follow on the second day of the competition. Daisy set the standard with a good double clear very close to the optimum time! Henry Blair, Hugo Blair, Ava Antonsen, Wilf Verrell, Nelly Lee, Archie Stamp and Hattie Raynes took to the stage and continued Daisy’s success, all getting that clear round. A special mention from the commentator as something no other school had managed!
The Sidcot Stripes (Daisy, Wilf, Nelly, Ava) finished an incredible 4th with Henry, Hugo, Hattie and Archie close behind in 9th.
90cm Arena Eventing Championships - again we were very fortunate to have 2 teams representing Sidcot in this class. The course was proving to be very tricky, with the first 4 teams that we watched being eliminated. Having followed on from the 80cm class, we were on the first day of the competition but the Sidcot Stars (Henry Blair, Archie Stamp, Hugo Blair and Ava Antonsen) didn’t let the nerves get the better of them and were the first school to finish on a team score of 0 and hold the lead overnight. The Sidcot Stripes (Elsa Cardale, Hattie Raynes, Jonnie Lee and Nelly Lee) were equally as bold and made light work of the cross-country phase but unfortunately just tapped some poles and left them placed just outside the top 10 placings. The competition then went into the second day. The Sidcot Stars managed to stay in the placings and again finish an incredible 4th place. Congratulations to Archie Stamp who also managed to finish 6th out of 250 competitors!
1m Arena Eventing Championships - Elsa Cardale, Henry Blair, Ava Antonsen and Jonnie Lee made light work a course that was again causing other teams some issues! Each rider just tapped the lightweight poles in the show jumping element to finish in 8th place at the end of a busy weekend!
90cm County Showjumping - Archie Stamp, Hugo Blair, Henry Blair and Nelly Lee were not only representing Sidcot in this class but also Somerset after winning the qualifier for this class back in December 2021. They were first in and set a very high standard and qualified for the top 8 jump off later that afternoon. All riders were incredibly fast but just carried forward the rolled pole from the first round to finish in 5th (and still had the quickest time out of any team in the competition!!)
County Dressage Championships - this class fell on the first day of the competition weekend and clearly set the standard for the classes to come. Henry Blair, Ava Antonsen and Elsa Cardale all rode accurate dressage tests to 5th as a team. Henry Blair also competed in the individual championships but just finished outside of the placings.
Congratulations to all of the riders.