Elizabeth

Judi opened the evening and introduced her Academy Committee before handing over to Jane Tremlow, the Regional Rep for Kent and Sussex, who spoke about the aims of the Junior Academy. Corrine Bracken who developed the blueprint of the scheme in Surrey then explained in a lot more depth how the system worked and what was expected. The meeting was rounded off by a Question and Answer session after a few words from Duncan Inglis who along with Judi will do a lot of the training days. Many thanks to Judi’s helpers who spent nearly all evening making the quiz papers and collating all the registration forms.

Like so many teenagers, all I ever wanted to do was show jump. All my spare time was spent at the yard riding my horses and trying to do the best I could on a limited budget - well, what dad would let us spend at least ! We had some success, and with the help of some very good trainers in the area were able to progress to a reasonable level.

I started riding in seniors at the age of 14 as due to my height it was not practical to stay in ponies. My parents did the best they could for me and bought a 15.3hh ex-racer who had done pretty well in BSJA. He was almost out of Foxhunter at the time we took him on. So, we went straight into what would be a 1.20m class in today’s money and we got on with it. We did okay and we won a Foxhunter to gain our qualification for the Regional Finals and effectively put an end to our eligibility for them ! So, onwards and upwards and before I knew it we were jumping 1.25’s and 1.30’s ! Two things there that have changed for the better in my opinion…the advent of ‘Open’ sections now mean that horse and rider combinations can start at a much lower level to gain confidence in each other, and the fact that you no longer need to win or be placed in a class to qualify for a Regional Final or Second Round. I think the 4 Double Clears rule was starting to come in towards the end of the eighties.

After my first taste of seniors I was very much hooked, and over the course of the next five years or so we had two or three other novices that we brought on. Unfortunately we were never in a position to be able to run more than one horse at a time, something that always frustrated me as the additional ring time would have been invaluable, but I was not alone, most privateers on the circuit back then had just one horse and did the best they could with it. Something that is very noticeable since returning is the number of people now running two or more horses.

So, as my teenage years came to an end, and the realisation that I was probably never going to be able to emulate my heroes of the time….Michael Whitaker, Nick Skelton et al…it came to the point where I had to make an important decision in my life. My parents were not going to continue funding my ‘hobby’ indefinitely, and I clearly wasn’t going to be able to afford to do so on a trainee computer operators wage. So in 1987 I made the hardest decision of my life and decided to cut my ties with horses completely. If I couldn’t be out competing, then I really didn’t want to have anything to do with horses anymore…
…and that’s the way it stayed until the summer of 2005.

In the years away, I got married to my wife, Sam, and we had two lovely boys. I had insisted that there was no way the boys were ever going to get involved in horses and was doing reasonably well with that stance until that long-feared statement from my youngest who was five years old at the time…’Dad, I want to go horse riding….’ ! Well, what could I say ?

That statement was made in about June, and by September we had taken delivery of a lovely 7yo KWPN gelding who was ready to take me back to where I was as a teenager….well, that was the plan anyway ! I had failed to take into consideration one vital factor…I was nowhere near as fit as I had been when I was a teenager ! So, after a few weeks of puffing and blowing, and slowly remembering where all the controls were, I felt we were ready for our first venture into the ring…a local unaffiliated show at our livery yard. We jumped the 2’9” class as it was the biggest they had, and managed a clear round. Unfortunately things started to go a little wrong in the jump-off though as my experienced mount decided that it was time to show me what to do against the clock and took complete control of the situation ! We ended up with another clear round, but I suffered an extremely painful groin strain in the process which effectively kept me out of the saddle for another three months, before we were able to re sume our competition career in earnest. Still, I’m in good company as a number of high profile riders have suffered similarly in recent years…

Another thing that has changed immensely over the years is the quality of the horses that are now readily available. Back in the eighties there were perhaps half a dozen people importing quality horses from the continent, but nowadays it seems that everyone has a warmblood (or two !), and the number of producers in our area has increased accordingly. The increase in quality of horses has led to an increase in technicality of courses, and one of the more obvious signs of that is the emergence of water trays / water jumps in Newcomers and Foxhunter classes. What else has changed in Area 46 ?

Well, a few show venues have disappeared….and many others have sprung up. I’ve very much enjoyed visiting centres such as Golden Cross, Crockstead, Felbridge, Royal Leisure and Badgerwood Stables. None of these venues ran BSJA back then to the best of my knowledge. Pyecombe has improved it’s facilities beyond all recognition and I have quickly become a fan of the new all-weather outdoor arenas that are springing up around the area. I think as the summers get hotter and drier, these arena’s will come into their own more and more. Hickstead is still there, and is investing heavily in it’s facilities to ensure it stays a leading venue for many years to come, and of course our ‘home’ ground at Ardingly is still very much at the centre of events having staged a very enjoyable three day Area 46 Championships show in July.

All in all, I am happy to report that Area 46 appears to be thriving, and I for one am looking forward to being a part of it for many more years to come.