York Guides

The biggest Riding Club event in the history of the North will be launched in August at the Great Yorkshire Showground.

The Ultimate Showcase of Champions will be staged on Saturday, August 13, and bring together riders and horses of all ages and abilities, registered and unregistered from around the country, giving them the chance to compete head-to-head to find the ultimate champion.

The show will have 76 classes, 10 championships and two supreme championships taking place in eight rings at the showground.

The ultimate prize will be a sponsorship package for a show-jumper and show rider to cover the cost of competing for a year.

There will also be a display by stunt riders in the main arena during a lunch break and a dice competition with a £15,000 horse box up for grabs.

Emma Verity, of the Ultimate Showcase, said: "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for equestrians of all levels to compete at one of the most prestigious showgrounds in the UK and the response so far has been tremendous, we are looking forward to a fantastic day."

Riding Clubs wishing to register to hold qualifiers for the event should contact Cathy Bertram, event manager on 07876 746016.

The huge attraction of Royal Ascot at York has seen the Society of Equestrian Artists bring forward its Northern Exhibition to coincide with the meeting.

The private view of the exhibition at Gallery 42 at Tadcaster from Friday, June 10-25.

The exhibition showcases the talents of Northern artists including Malcolm Coward, Neil Cawthorne and Barry Peckham.
The Society's annual London exhibition will be staged at the Mall Gallery in Trafalgar Square from June 21 for five days.
More than 200 of the UK's top artists will have work on display.

Trust the Americans to really go over the top.

Las Vegas is to stage the richest horse show in the world with an overall purse of $1m, or £526, 250 and a few pence.
The Las Vegas World Invitational will be open to 25 invited riders for two days in October.
First prize for the Grand Prix is £395,000 so the riders will be there.

Drivers weather tough conditions

Equestrian Post Country carriage drivers showed they were a hardy lot at Ripley Castle when the elements threw everything at them, from rain and hail to sun and strong winds.

Drivers in the dressage on Saturday afternoon suffered especially, adding endurance, fortitude and controlling wet reins with frozen hands to the skills under examination.

In her debut season, talented novice horse driver Amy Woodward, of Clitheroe, managed to post a dressage score of 54, in spite of the conditions, better than all but one of the open horse competitors. The exception was national driver Carol Johnson, of Morpeth, with an outstanding 43.2 points. She must now be pressing for international honours.
The pre-novice class, an important class for newcomers to the sport and introduced by the forward-looking North Eastern Group, saw eight entries and excellent dressage performances from Steve Kirby, Zena Pashley and Wendy Ellis, all names to look for in the future.

Brian Anderson designed and masterminded a typically testing 650m cones course overlooking the castle and lake, so testing that only Jackie Herd, of Brough, Cheryl Buckley and Dougie Strachan, of North Ferriby, managed to run double clear.

The new shorter time allowed for the distance covered has certainly made this element of FEI competitions much more demanding of horse and driver, only eight out of 29 open drivers achieving the time allocated.
Bad weather and heavy going led to a shortened marathon, but careful route planning and obstacle design left plenty of opportunities for excellence and enjoyment. Carol Johnson put in the best marathon performance and local boy Ken Walmsley put in the fastest time of all competitors through the water obstacle with his pony pair; his time of 64 seconds was two-and-a-half minutes faster than the slowest.

Results – Prenovice: Steve Hoyle; Novice Pony: Terry Kirby; Novice Horse: Amy Woodward; Open Pony: Jackie Herd; Open Horse: Carol Johnson; Pairs: Dougie Strachan; Tandem: Pat Cooper.

The next event takes place at Ripon on June 11-12. Further details from Lorraine Swift on 0113 256 7192
It may be out of season, but the York and Ainsty North Hunt is keeping busy on the social scene.

There are still two show-jumping league fixtures, this Saturday and on June 4 at Field House Farm, Whixley, described as a weekly informal show-jumping event with clear rounds and an ideal spot to bring a new or young horse. Turn up either day from 11.30am.

On Sunday, lots of hunt members and supporters will be involved in the Hambleton Show at Carlton Husthwaite. The Horse of the Year qualifier raises money for charity and hunt funds.

July 24 will see a combined training event at Field House Farm and August 29 is the date for the hunt's pleasure ride in and around Ribstone Park with optional cross-country jumps for the more bold.

No course, no event. So it is a shocking state of affairs that British cross-country course builders the Willis brothers are still owed thousands of pounds from the 2002 World Equestrian Games.

WEG at Jerez in Spain, the home of Sherry, has left a nasty taste in the mouth to several businesses after going bust in 2002.

One noted equestrian photographer still has an unpaid £1,000 bill.