Showjumping: Essex riders in dominant form at Towerlands

Superb going at the indoor arena, along with the highest calibre of horsemanship and well designed courses produced some excellent competition.

Essex riders were in dominant form, particularly in the junior category for the under 18 age group, with 16-year-old Tracey Phillips from Purleigh winning three of the competitions aboard Corrado II, thus earning them the Traxdata award for the leading horse and rider combination.

Having had a successful career with ponies, Tracey was competing at her first international event in this category and she has only been riding the eight-year-old grey since the beginning of the year.

Together they won three of the show's classes and their £600 winnings meant that Corrado II has now been upgraded to Grade A.

In the One World Publications Junior Two Phase class, the opening competition of the show, they were drawn ninth of the 27 starters and having gone clear over the first part of the course, cleared the remaining fences in an unbeatable time of 34.26 seconds.

Tracey's four second winning margin came at the expense of Stacey Willsone from Horndon-on-the-Hill riding Tougardens Joshuan.

Tracey beat Yorkshire's Robert Whitaker into second place in Saturday's jump off competition whilst in the Milton Junior small grand prix, she took advantage of final draw to just pip Tom Boulton from Quendon, riding Bullands Extrovert, into second place by just one-tenth of a second.

Tom also enjoyed a successful show, winning the speed class by some five seconds with this horse.

Despite having one fence down in the table C competition, where seconds are added for fences knocked down, Stacey Willsone's time on AMG Elegance was still fast enough to take the £250 first prize.

Stacey was also runner-up in the Junior Grand Prix with her other ride, Tougardens Joshuan, one of only two partnerships to make it through to the final, timed jump off.

Sara Rust from Hatfield Broad Oak riding Circe de Safrais finished in the same position in the under 21 equivalent, sponsored by her father's company Fordyce, Curry & Co., with Felsted's Rowena Ockendon-Day and Corezienne, just two-hundredths of a second behind in third.

They were among just four partnerships who reached it through to the third and final round.

Together with her young horse, Gramena, Rowena was 'really pleased' by her third place in the Accumulator competition and fourth in the young riders small grand prix. Sara's younger sister, Emma, also gained a fourth place with Pleasure and a fifth with Neverno.

Sixty-two riders representing seven nations, along with over 100 horses and ponies, converged on the Braintree venue to compete in the fifth running of this prestigious event, which for the first time this year incorporated classes for riders in the under 16 age group.

These pony classes saw some hotly contested classes and Kirsty Milzareck from Stambourne took the SMS Ltd. Pony small grand prix on Miss Honeypot in a 12 pony jump off.

The Allendale Estates pony grand prix attracted nine of the top pony partnerships in the country and victory went to sponsor's daughter, Alice Beaumont, riding Colton Maelstrom.

Although Alice lives in Northumberland, her ponies are based in Stapleford Abbots.

Ben Maher from Great Sampford and Strawberry Mojo were runners-up and this, along with a third and fourth place, earned Ben the leading boy rider of the show on the same pony. Ben also gained a third and fifth on Dusty Boy.

Lauley Squibb from South Weald made her presence felt, with two second placings and a sixth aboard Ferrybound as well as a third on Lady Ashfield.

Having been third in one class with Street Angel, they finished fourth in the pony Grand Prix by virtue of incurring just one time, despite clearing all the fences.

Lauley Squibb and Ferrybound, who gained a sixth place at the Braintree International Young Riders Show.

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