King’s Hawford Equestrian Team Shine at Hickstead Championships

Individual First place and Team Top 10 finish for King’s Hawford at Hickstead Championships.

20/8/24 7.15am. Let those wagons roll!

Shiny ponies, pristine tack, sleepy children and coffee fuelled parents set off on the great trek to Hickstead.

4.5 hours later Team Hawford arrived at the home of British showjumping, settled the ponies into their stables and set up camp. Who knew pitching tents in gusty winds could be so much fun! Inflatable tents are the way forward!

Then down to business… the warm up rounds. We entered the 40cm and 50cm warm up classes.

In the 40cm warm up, Adelyn, Maysie and Rosie produced 3 lovely clear rounds, and Maysie, Rosie and Chloe produced 3 lovely clear rounds in the 50cm. Off to a great start after a long journey.

The Hawford team spirit flowed abundantly with the girls all encouraging each other and praising each other’s ponies.

After a fun evening at Camp Hawford and a good night’s sleep, ponies were fed and groomed, tack was cleaned and the girls prepared themselves for the NSEA Grassroots Championship finals…

40cm Championship final saw 2 awesome clear rounds from Chloe and Rosie and fantastic determined riding from Maysie with an unlucky 4 faults. This class was judged on style and Rosie came joint 1st out of a whopping 108 riders! She had qualified for this class as part of the team rather than as an individual so didn’t get a rosette but she did get the Best of the Rest prize (a smart blue jacket) so was delighted.  All 3 girls rode brilliantly and did themselves, their ponies and Hawford proud.

50cm Championship final saw 3 beautiful clear rounds from Adelyn, Chloe and Rosie and just a pole down for Maysie. All 4 girls rode to an extremely high standard and with great determination. This was an optimum time class and team came 9th out of 26 teams. Adelyn was just 1.8 seconds off the optimum time finished 14th out of 147 riders.

60cm Championship final. Adelyn had qualified as an individual for this class. She and Tank did themselves proud competing at this new height. Adelyn rode positively and with huge determination however, with a pole down and a run out for a total of 8 faults, this wasn’t to be their day.

All in all, it was a fantastic 2days and a positive experience for this young team. The girls and their ponies excelled themselves, showed true team spirit, had lots of fun and went home smiling.