And photographs, if you have any.
Horseytalk.net Special Interview
Sheila Barker
The reasons for our success
Time and Preparation is what South-East regional coordinator Sheila Barker
put her
teams' success down to when they claimed the KBIS JRN Team Championship
title
at Weston Park International Horse Trials.
In what was one of the closest fought championships for some time, right up until the final team member of the South-East's squad of four, had show jumped, the competition was open, with both the Central and Eastern team hot on their tails. However the four immaculate clear rounds produced by team members Tom Jackson (Waltham Fiddlers Find), Genevieve Clarke (Welton Jazz), Will Furlong (Fancy That II) and Polly Marino (Surely Dino), the south east team claimed the Championship title to a cheering crowd, leaving the Central team a close second and behind them the Eastern team in third place.
Sheila commented 'Horses and partnerships take time and in this day and age
of quick
fix it is something that a lot of riders forget about. My squad had all
taken time.
Three children are lucky enough to have experienced horses but still all three still spent the whole of 2009 contesting in BE 100's and then starting the 2010 season with two BE100's before moving on to five Junior Novices. The last member of the team also took the whole of 2009 in BE100 classes making sure that the ground work was in position for a young horse so that when he was asked to stand and deliver he did - with some style!'
To this she was referring to seventeen-year-old Tom Jackson, who also took home the Individual KBIS JRN Championship title on board his own Waltham Fiddlers Find, in what was just their second season eventing together, making it a double victory for the South-East.
The three other team members all finished within the top ten after producing
double clears, adding only a couple of time penalties to their dressage
marks, much to the delight of team trainer Mark Corbett and Sheila who added
'they were a joy to work with and we had a lot of fun along the
way!'
Genevieve Clarke riding Welton Jazz was thrilled with her teams win 'It was my ambition to be able to compete at Weston Park, so not only to be there, but for the south east team to win and for me to come eighth individually was more than a dream come true and it was the highlight of my year.'
Eighteen-year-old Polly with Surely Dino added nothing onto her dressage mark of 51.8 to take seventh place while Will Furlong's claimed fifth place on board the fifteen year old mare Fancy That II. Jane Peters, Chairman of the Regional Coordinators said of all the competitors ' There were some really quality horse and excellent, mature, riding performances from outstanding JRN competitors.'
This is the fourth year in which KBIS British Equestrian Insurance have been sponsoring the JRN championships.
Managing Director Guy Prest was on hand to present the prizes and congratulate the riders saying ' To have the level of enthusiasm and ability shown by all the competitors can only be good for team GBR well into the future. KBIS look forward to seeing this highly successful formula being progressed forward for 2011.'