It was an unbelievably exciting weekend for Year 10 student, Cesca and her horse Boo. Cesca was one of 26 riders to qualify for the Junior Cotswold Cup Championships - finishing 2nd overall and ending the event as Reserve Champions in the class! As part of their prize, Cesca and Boo have been invited to attend a training day in January 2023 with Laura Collett our current Olympic gold medallist and this year’s Badminton winner.

Hosted at Cirencester Park on 24 and 25 September, the Junior Cotswold Cup Championships this time around was unusually organised as an old style 'long format' eventing competition held over two days, which included a speed and endurance section on top of the already gruelling cross-country course. In recent years, the longer format has been removed from the likes of the Badminton Horse Trials (as seen on TV) and the prospect of preparing for something so much longer than the rest of the season was daunting to say the least. This combined the need for greater level of fitness for both horse and rider with learning how to manage the complex timings of each section!

Day 1 consisted of the dressage and show jumping classes, after which Cesca was in 3rd place, with only three riders on a dressage score of under 30 points. Day 2 was where it got really exciting, covering 10.5km across four sections at different speeds that had to be finished in a really tight optimum time! This included a 2km steeple chase, ridden at a gallop over fences that very few would have had time/facilities to practice, and a challenging 2.5km cross country course over 23 fences. Cesca and her pony, Boo, had the time of their lives and stormed home with 8 seconds to spare having successfully navigated each and every element of the course with no penalties.

We are so delighted and proud of Cesca and Boo for navigating the speed, length and complexity of the 11.5 km course so successfully. What an exciting event to be a part of and compete in. A massive well done to you. We hope you have an amazing time at the winners training day in January 2023 with Laura Collet – we can’t wait to hear all about it.