National Championships at Hickstead

The Sunshine Tour is a national equestrian competition for amateur riders. Qualifying competitions took place across all disciplines throughout the year, culminating in the National Championships, which are held at Hickstead – England’s most famous showground.

Throughout 2016 Lauren, Isabelle, Helene and Sophia, some of the members of our Equestrian Team, have been busy qualifying in regional competitions in several disciplines, which took them through to the National Championships held last weekend.

The girls went to Hickstead early on Friday morning where Lauren, the youngest competitor in her class, came 15th in a huge 65cm show jumping class against both senior and junior riders.

On Saturday lucky Isabelle had to sit her 11+ whilst the rest of the team had fun competing.  Lauren came 11th out of 70 in her 65cm class in very slippery conditions.  Sophia and Helene competed in the under 16s dressage and both competed in showing classes where Helene came 7th in the first ridden.  The weather was appalling but all the girls rode beautifully against stiff competition.

On Sunday Isabelle and her Daddy got up at 5am to make a mad dash to Hickstead in order to arrive in time for the first show jumping class of the day, being judged on style and which Isabelle proudly finished in 4th place.  Helene, also in this same class came 11th.  Helene also rode in the family pony class against adults and came 3rd – fantastic results all round.

We are very proud of our St Margaret’s equestrian girls for not only qualifying for the National Championships, but for their amazing results across the four days! We look forward to their continued progress this coming year!