International student riding competition

[cubic]

I'm on the British squad for student riding (I know, I know, I stopped being a student in June, but I'm eligable for student riding until I'm 28), and over the last 5 days I've been at Kingswood EC at the British hosted Student Riding Nations Cup.

There are comeptitions run in lots of different countries throughout the year, and 18 teams competed in the British one (lots from Europe, plus USA and Canada). There are 3 in a team, and we compete in dressage and Show Jumping.

The competition is difficult to explain without seeing it. All the horses are provided by the host nation. In the first round each person rides one horse, with 5 mins to warm up (and 2 practice jumps in the SJ) and then straight into the arena to do dressage or showjumping. The first round dressage is done as a team test, with all 3 riders riding a synchronised test, and the SJ is individual around a 3ft course. 3 riders ride each horse, and the best rider on each horse goes through to the 2nd round. There are 4 rounds in total, going up to a Prix St George dressage test and SJ up to 1m40 (4ft6) in the final round.

Showjumping the 2nd round (3ft6) was pretty scary for a non-showjumper like me. I havent' jumped at all for 4 months, and then it was only baby show horses! And the last time I did nations cup, in Canada, I got through to the 3rd round and gave the poor horse a terrible ride. However despite being wobbly from lack of riding fitness now I'm working I did ok and came 2nd on my horse, narrowly missing out on going through to the 3rd round.

We had a great time - worked hard and partied hard. Our team did well, getting team bronze in dressage and bronze overall combined and team Gold in SJ (tied). I was 16th out of 54 riders, and 14th in SJ.

Here are a couple of photos and a video. Before anyone jumps on the thread, these are horses provided by others and we don't get any choice over tack etc. And I know I'm not 100% balenced on landing over the fences - I'm really feeling my lack of fitness now I'm not riding regularly.


The first time I jumped my round 1 SJ horse




Round 2 SJ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzyuzePa304


The Brits




The winnings

[megnum]

Well done x

[rhillahorse]

Woo! Big congrats to you! ;D

[Casper]

Hey stop running yourself down Cubic. You did fantastically! That looked like a VERY big striding horse and as you had only just got on him and went on to do the showjumping I think you look amazing. Well done to you and your team for the great results.

[thelwall78]

Wow - wish I rode as badly as you! Congrats on those prizes - bet you all had an absolute blast as well!

[jennyb]

Well done! Kingswood is lovely, I used to ride there

[ukshowjumper]

Well done.....and is the second girl in from the right called Bea?

[cubic]

ukshowjumper said:

Well done.....and is the second girl in from the right called Bea?

Nope, that would be me (and I'm not called Bea), Bea wasn't there this time.

[sara]

wow thats fantastic, well done!

[emi]

You look great! It sound hard - am I right in thinking you had never ridden these horses before the competition!?

How did you get on the squad?

[ukshowjumper]

You look like a slimer version of her (don't tell her I said that!!) Bea goes to the same uni as me but I don't do Equine Science so I'm not good enough to scrub her boots

[Lulu]

I want the horse, he looks so genuine, if big striding, but certainly genuine to take a stranger over big jumps !!

PS, slimer ?? LMAO, So Cubics a slimy version of Bea ? LOL !!

[cubic]

emi said:

You look great! It sound hard - am I right in thinking you had never ridden these horses before the competition!?

How did you get on the squad?

You're right, we don't see the horses until the day of the competition. Horses are allocated via a draw, but in the first round the team is allocated 3 horses between us and we decide who rides each horse. After that there's no choice of horse. They're demonstrated for about 15mins on the flat or over the first couple of fences in the SJ course before the first rider gets on.

I got on the squad through riding for my university team - in the league rounds I qualified for the regional finals and then the National champs where I came 2nd. The top 6 were invited to apply to go on the GB squad. They also have occasional assessment days, particularly in the run up to the World Student Games where any student can apply to come for assessment (Jeanette Brakewell was assessing last year, which was fab).

The great thing about uni riding is that you don't need to have or have ever had your own horse, and it's all about getting the best out of a range of horses, rather than just one horse. I've got to ride a quality of horse I've never been lucky enough to have myself.

[cubic]

ukshowjumper said:

You look like a slimer version of her (don't tell her I said that!!) Bea goes to the same uni as me but I don't do Equine Science so I'm not good enough to scrub her boots

LOL. I've never met her, so I won't be telling her any time soon! The closest I've got to her is having our names in the same article in Horse&Hound last week.

[ukshowjumper]

Lulu....sshhh I've already been on the vino you know what I mean