Words by Stephanie DeWitt    Photos by Julian Portch

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It seemed as if riders used the first three days of competition in Hickstead’s International Arena as a warm-up, building up to a thrilling finale on Sunday. The standard of jumping was high throughout the event, the only fixture to run there this year. All necessary precautions and restrictions were observed to ensure the safe running of the sport.

 

Lucy Townley was the star of the last day, winning both the Stoner Jewellers All England Novice Championship, with fences set at 1.10m, and the LeMieux All England 1.30m Open Championship, riding the Billy Stud’s 6 year old bay mare BILLY VITAINI and William Funnell’s 8 year-old gelding BENTLEY X respectively.

 

Billy Stud horses were to the fore on Saturday: Jay Halim on E Marsh’s BILLY COINTREAU topped the DM Horseboxes All England 1m Open Championship; William Funnell on BILLY MARMITE won the Al Shira’aa All England Seven Year Old Championship ahead of Lucy riding BILLY PABLO.

 

Run under Table A6, a Two-Phase competition not against the clock, with fences set at 1.10m, the Al Shira’aa All England Four Year Old Championship on Friday resulted in seven competitors sharing equal first place. Ireland’s Jason Fitzpatrick featured twice in this list with LUCARDO and GLAMOR DE VIE, the other five all represented Britain, including Lottie Tutt on Lizzie Bunn’s BILLY MUFASA.

 

Al Shira’aa also sponsored the Five Year Old and Six Year Old Championships. With twenty horses contesting the barrage in the former, Lottie Tutt riding BILLY BALBOA, a grey mare bought by Nick Skelton at a Billy Stud auction, again took top honours in the fastest time of 42.56 seconds, closely followed by Jessica Burke of Ireland on Louisa Church’s bay mare BILLY UTAH (43.61s). Jessica then went on to win the latter class with Liam Nichols’ mare ASHDALE DIVINE in 38.82 seconds.

 

Sammie-Jo Coffin from Cornwall riding Mark Penhaligon’s 8 year-old bay gelding HABRAXIS took the Voltaire Design All England 1.20m Open Championship. On Saturday, Sammie-Jo was first and third in the Voltaire Design Douglas Bunn 1.35m Challenge in which riders had to negotiate some of the International Arena’s permanent fences. This she achieved with her two rides, WILLEM DE LUX (92.67s) and BELLAMY (96.22s), with Olympic eventer Gemma Tattersall in second place riding Chris Stone’s talented CHICO BELLA P (94.01s).

 

First to go in the jump-off of the IG Equine All England 1.10m Amateur Championship, Jasmine Gutsall and her own 10 year-old bay mare KILLUPPAUN CONTADOR set the standard with a clear round in 37 seconds exactly. Only two more double clears were posted but no one could better Jasmine’s time. Holly Hall was second to a very emotional Jasmine in a time of 39.37 seconds riding her own 11 year-old bay mare WKD SAN REMO. This latter horse and rider combination were also second in the Goodbye Flys All England 1.20m Amateur Championship, with Amy Carnet taking first place aboard Tessa Talbot’s 11 year-old bay gelding BANDERAS.

 

Holly Smith from Leicestershire was second in Sunday’s 1.20m on her own 10 year-old gelding AVALON SUNSET B, following which she took the top spot, riding T J Hall’s stunning 10 year-old stallion FRUSELLI out of 75 starters in the Science Supplements All England Grand Prix. On Thursday this combination beat Guy Williams with his own 11 year-old gelding MR BLUE SKY into second place in the All England 1.40m Open, shaving more than a second off his time.

 

Second place in the Grand Prix went to Irishman Shane Breen and Team Z7’s experienced 14 year-old bay stallion CAN YA MAKAN. This pair also won the well-subscribed Science Supplements All England 1.40m Open on Friday.

 

The youngsters weren’t forgotten either. Three Pony of the Year classes were held on Thursday: the Winter Grade C Championship was won by Lauren Caroline and KISSAMEE CHATTERBOX who qualified at Arena UK; theWinter 128cm and 138cm Championships went to Sophia Rogers riding WHINNEY LASS and Tabitha Kyle on PLAYBOY VAN DE ZOETEWEI respectively, both of whom qualified at Southview.