Young riders from Longridge Towers School win two titles at national equestrian championships

The event runs over four days and sees nearly 1,000 riders competing after gaining qualification from coming either first or second as a team or first to fourth as an individual in qualifying events.

Longridge’s squad competed in two classes – show Jumping and Jumping With Style (JWS). The show jumping classes are termed as single phase where there are a total of 11/12 jumps and from jump six the class is timed. The JWS classes have slightly more jumps with the first six or seven show jumps, then the timed section is over cross-country style fences and riders must jump clear but also show good style.

The Longridge ‘Blue’ team of Fergus Inness on Rhosygarreg Derwin, Florrie Barr on Lyndhurst Red Regent, Maisie Murray on Mountain Bobby and Sophie Wharton on Charlie Brown made a great start to finish 12th out of 28 teams in the 75cm show jumping class, the same team went on the finish a fantastic sixth in the JWS class.

The ‘White’ Longridge team of Isla Punton on Catmandu, Isla Martin on Antrim Master Ted, Livvy Barr on Paddy the Second and Sam Herdman on Ardagh Bobby produced four fantastic rounds in the 85cm JWS class to become National Champions.

The school also came third in the hotly contested class against the top schools in the country.

One of the biggest classes of the weekend was the 80-85cm show jumping class, which had over 200 competitors. Longridge had two teams competing, and the team of Livvy Barr, Isla Punton, Isla Martin and Fergus Inness clinched the title after a nail-biting jump-off – a hundredth of a second separated the top three teams.

The school picked up another top-10 placing in the 95cm JWS, coming eighth.

The preparation to get to these events is huge and the commitment, team spirit and sportsmanship from the young riders is commendable. The team would like to thank those who supported them, including Carrs Billington. If any local business would like to help the team they would be hugely grateful.

The school would also like to thank the parents for their support and encouragement.