Mendoza seals title treble (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Mendoza seals title treble

9:58am Thursday 31st July 2008

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Equestrian: Jessica Mendoza has taken home one of the country's top pony show jumping titles.

The Tockenham 12-year-old was among the qualifiers for the pony show jumping finals at the Royal International Horse Show, held at the famed Hickstead Showground in Sussex.

Her main aim was the Winter 128cms Championships as this is her last year in the 12 years and under age category, which she has dominated over the past couple of seasons.

She joined 23 riders who had qualified from all over Britain in the testing first round track, where nine made it to the second round against the clock.

"Jessica was drawn three from the end in the second round and she just decimated her rivals," said proud dad Paul.

"She finished about three and a half seconds ahead of them.

"Her pony Get Ready Freddie responded to the huge arena by just picking up and flying round - and that was it."

Jessica now has the full set of national 128cms titles, having won at both the Scope Festival and the Horse of the Year Show in the autumn of 2007.

She was also sixth in the Winter JC Championship at Hickstead on her 148cms novice mare Razorlight II, a pony spotted by her trainer Amanda Brewer.

"We are now off to Scotland this weekend for the Home Pony International up there," Paul added.

"Then it's back to the Scope Festival at the end of the month and then on to the Horse of the Year Show again, where Jessica has qualified for the 128cms, 138cms and Junior Newcomers finals."

n Marlborough'S New Zealander Andrew Nicholson has delayed his trip out to the Beijing Olympics, where he will ride Lord Killinghurst, in a bid to win his second British Open Championship title.

He will be challenging for the title at this weekend's Festival of British Eventing, which takes place at HRH The Princess Royal's Gatcombe Park home in Gloucestershire.

Nicholson, British Open winner in 2002, will ride Armada and his new partner Muschamp Impala, two of ten horses he has entered at the Festival.

The others include full brothers Avebury and Tristar who could pull off a unique double in the British Intermediate and British Novice Championships if they can maintain the consistent form they have shown this season.

n Lower Stanton St Quinton's Kitty Boggis was in good form in the top sections on offer at the Wilton one day event, held in the stately surroundings of the Earl of Pembroke's Wilton House, near Salisbury.

The 26-year-old, who is on the World Class Potential training programme, made the line up in both the Open Intermediate sections.

She earned a third in one section on Janet Jarvis' horse General Opposition, a ten-year-old who jumped a double clear and was also fourth at this level on his previous outing, at Tweseldown.

Boggis then secured fifth spot in the other section on another highly consistent horse, Alexandra Fox's 12-year-old Kings Cross.

The horse has only once finished out of the placings on his completions this season and was third in the CIC Two Star section at the Barbury International Horse Trials earlier this month.

"Both horses did very nice dressage tests but I was a little disappointed with General Opposition's mark, although it still left him in a competitive position," said Boggis.

"Both then jumped super cross country rounds - it was fairly roasting but they coped well.

"They'll both go to the Hartpury two star International later in August."

Calne's Darrell Scaife and Andrew Nicholson both headed Intermediate sections.

Scaife headed his section on the nine-year-old Wiseguy II, who is by the top Oldenburg stallion Welt Hit II.

The sire is perhaps best known for producing dressage horses and certainly looks to have passed on his genes, as Wiseguy recorded an excellent dressage mark of 19.5, by far the best in any of the sections at this level.

Scaife was also second on another Intermediate ride, Aberjet, and Nicholson's winning ride was the precious five-year-old Quimbo, who was scoring his third win in what is his first BE season.

n Devizes' Jane Gregory and her horse Lucky Star, her partner on the British Dressage team due to compete at the Beijing Olympics, have jetted off this week.

The horse has been in quarantine at Hartpury College near Gloucester for the past nine days, along with all the three-day event and dressage British team horses and flew out to Hong Kong.

"Being at Hartpury has been like being part of one big happy family, with everyone getting on so well," said Gregory, who also rode at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

"It's been a great opportunity for us all to bond."

If a horse were to drop out now for any reason it could not be replaced, as additional horses can no longer meet the quarantine requirements, which means the well being of the team horses is now absolutely paramount.

The Olympic dressage competition runs from August 13 to the 19, with both team and individual medals available, with some spare' days built in to allow for the possibility of postponement in what is Hong Kong's typhoon season.

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