Not even gale force winds and torrential rain brought by Storm Abigail could dampen the high spirits at the Kent & Masters Team Quest Championships hosted by Bury Farm, Buckinghamshire (14 – 15 November 2015). Pembrokeshire Lunachicks and Eccleshall Allsorts were the winners of the BYRDS and Open sections, awarding them the title of best Team Quest teams in the country!
48 teams took part in the championships, travelling to the competition from as far as the Western Isles of Scotland, having qualified for the championships from the nine regional finals that took place earlier in the autumn. The 192 competitors rode two tests each over the weekend – with the top three percentages from each team on each day calculating a total team score to declare the winners.
BYRDS champions, Pembrokeshire Lunachicks (above), were overnight leaders and won by a convincing margin with an impressive total score of 438.29. The team is made up of 18-year-old Dani Sibbald riding her own 14-year old gelding, Master Rockafella, 16-year-old Charlie Hunt riding her own, Belgian-bred, Isaura Van’t Ceusterhof and 18-year-old Rose Sinclair-James and 13-year-old Gracie-Lou Randles riding a pair of welsh section D’s, Martletwy Welsh Comet and Abergavenny X-Factor. Gracie-Lou achieved the highest score of the whole competition, riding in the Intro class, gaining a massive 76.09%.
“It has been very nerve wracking, of course now it’s all over and done with, and I can speak on behalf of all of us, we still can’t believe we’ve won!” said chuffed team captain Dani. “There was quite a lot of pressure considering we were leaders overnight so we had to try and keep that up, but we were successful, especially with Charlie and Gracie scoring in the seventies.”
The team travelled a good 7 hours from Pembrokeshire in Wales to get to the event and met each other in the area at Pony Club events. “Charlie and I joined British Dressage in 2014, and then we got Gracie and Rose involved in Team Quest and I think they’ve quite enjoyed it!” said Dani, gesturing to the super prizes won by the team supplied by title sponsors Kent and Masters Saddlery. The ‘Lunachicks’ are set on continuing with Team Quest next year, “me and Rose will be off to university but that won’t stop us, it won’t get in the way of the dream team!”
Asked to sum up her weekend, Open team champion’s, Eccleshall Allsorts (below), Erika Abbotts is thrilled, “Absolutely ecstatic, brilliant!”. The team, from Eccleshall in Staffordshire, is a real mix hence the name ‘Allsorts’, with riders of all ages, 15 to 71, and all backgrounds, featuring one rider with a PHD in forensic entomology! Consisting of team captain, Erika Abbotts on her own gypsy cob, Longdon Domino, Wendy Copeland on 10-year-old mare, Tilly V, Hannah Moore on 12-year-old eventer Tom Sawyer and 15-year-old Georgia Dunford-Jones who was team reserve with her horse Ginger who stepped up to the plate when team member Diane Feledziak’s horse unfortunately went lame. “It’s been the most amazing experience, our team are so close and everything just fell into place” said Georgia.
Saturday night brought the worst of the weather with strong winds playing havoc in Bury Farm’s outdoor arenas which were struggling to stay on the ground. A safety conscious decision was made early on Sunday morning to quickly move all outdoor competition into the indoor arenas. Top scoring veteran rider from the competition, Wendy Copeland, said, “We’ve had a fantastic time all of us. I would like to thank the organisers because they have put on a really super show, considering the weather conditions they’ve had to change everything, it still ran to time and everyone’s very helpful, it makes all the difference. You know when you come away and you’ve got horses to look after, when everything’s organised you really appreciate that.”
The competition culminated in an exciting prize giving finale with Paralympic gold medallist, Natasha Baker, and Ben Roberts of Kent and Masters Saddlery handing out the prizes to the top ten teams and special prizes for non-performance related themes. Winners of such awards included two teams from the Isle of Lewis, Scotland who deservedly won the ‘Team Who Travelled Furthest’ award after their 636 mile journey! Best Team Selfie went to Staffordshire-based BYRDS team, I’m a showjumper, get me out of here, who utilised the Kent and Masters trade stand and balloons to get a cheeky snap whilst wearing their matching team onesies. Best Team Spirit went to the Cupcake Queens from Ayrshire in Scotland who demonstrated fantastic team spirit, especially from team mascot and reserve rider Hannah Ullrich who wore a cupcake outfit in support of her team all weekend!
Results
BYRDS
1st Pembrokeshire Lunachicks, 438.29
2nd Norfolk Divas, 428.40
3rd Sister Act, 427.51
4th The Hornettes, 425.06
5th Denstone Little Diamonds, 420.65
6th WMDG Bluebirds 3, 417.99
7th The Folly Fillies, 416.85
8th Beds Byrdies, 415.11
9th Hammerwood, 413.43
10th Norfolk Darlings, 413.06
Open
1st Eccleshall Allsorts, 433.66
2nd Norfolk Collection, 429.93
3rd Holcombe Hens, 420.96
4th BT’s Muppets, 419.38
5th Pembrokeshire Bays, 415.14
6th The Blue Crew, 413.38
7th Ready Steady Ride, 411.53
8th Bounced Back, 410.34
9th Obviously Oldefields, 410.23
10th Stansted Riding Club, 408.47
For full results click here and for the full special prizes award winners list click here.
To find out more about how to get involved in Team Quest and new individual series My Quest head on over to the Team Quest webpage or the Team Quest Facebook page.